For those of you who live out of State or have not picked up the November issue of Downeast Magazine, here is my article online. I would love to hear what you think about it. Thanks! Why We Hunt: Belonging
Nov 2014 Downeast Magazine A few months ago, I was asked to write an article for Downeast Magazine about what it means to be a woman who hunts. I was excited about the opportunity and eagerly sat down to write what I knew would be the widest seen piece of my career. It took me a month to come up with the article, edit it and edit it again but it was submitted and I felt good about it. Then, I was asked to do a photo shoot for the article that would be me and a few friends in the city. It was a perfect depiction of what hunters look like compared to the perception that non-hunters (and maybe a few hunters) view as a hunter. My friends Lorri, Jenn and Melissa agreed to be in the shoot with me. Seeing the finished...
The following is an article that will be published in the Northwoods Sporting Journal in the August issue. Women are on the move! We are taking over the woods, fields and waterways to hunt, hike and fish. And we are doing it more often than men. An article posted in June on Ammoland’sShooting Sporting News, states that “the most recent U.S Census found that there are 13.7 million hunters in the Nation – 11 percent of them are women.” Slowing but consistently, women are picking up guns and rods and heading outside. We are getting into hunting and fishing and taking it seriously; it is becoming more than just a seasonal hobby for most women. According to a 2013 Nation Shooting Sports Foundation...
I hate to burst your bubble folks, but its more likely than not that you will never see me on the cover of any hunting magazine for three reasons, 1. I just don't look that good in camo 2. I would refuse to wear anything pink or have anything within the shot be pink and 3. if I were ever asked a question about my looks vs my hunting abilities, my comment would not be fit to print. I was excited when I got the May issue of Field and Stream. Finally! There was a woman on the cover. I flipped through the pages to find the article. I flipped. I flipped. And when I got to the end of the magazine, I went back through and looked again. Maybe I didn't have enough coffee? Nope. There was NO...
After I posted my blog on cyber bullying and outdoors-women, I sent versions out to be published elsewhere. One place did and it got some great coverage. The other place did not. The reasoning, "MY wife has hunted with men for years and has never run into this sort of thing. I have learned not to put much stock in the spewings that come from the cyber world." Upset with that response, I headed to Facebook to see what the topics were on some of the hunting groups that I follow. One had a picture of a woman with the caption, "Honey, I decided to sell those old guns and knifes you have laying around the house" and the man who posted this asked the question, 'What would you do?" The responses,...
A friend of mine sent me this link and asked what I thought about it. I had seen it before and was honest when I told him how degrading I felt it was. Not only was the title of the "Miss Maine Sportsman" application in pink* but the questions were incredibly insulting to those of us that are fighting to be taken seriously among our male counterparts. Questions like, "Do you clean your own kills/catches?" would never be asked if it were Mr. Maine Sportsman. It would be assumed that yes, of course men clean what they kill. Why is that assumption not made of us outdoor women? Another question, "Do cook [sic] what you catch/kill? If so, what’s your favorite recipe?" would never be asked of men. My...