Hunting from a Female Perspective

   It's the middle of a sweltering hot day. I've been shooting archery all day when one of my arrows decided to break in half.  Stupid arrows, I mutter as I stalk out of my car, wearing home-made Real tree camo short overalls and matching camo flip-flops. Bass Pro looms in the distance when I see a gaggle of little girls reaching the same door I'm about to enter.  Given that I have manners, something that the majority of people seriously lack these days, I open the door to allow the girls and their haggered-looking parents an easy exit.  Unsure as to how to understand something they had never seen, the pink-Dora the Explorer clad group slowly meander by.  Muttering in muted tones saved for sideshow freaks, they make little comments about my chosen garb. One of the boldest, a girl whose father looked on with approval walked out the door but came back to ask, "You're GI Jane.. do you kill animals?" 

    Ever since my hunting love affair began, I have had to face many questions.  Some of them are hard to answer but the majority are just stupid assumptions by those who have no idea what they are talking about.  People don't seem to understand how someone, a girl; a very short one at that, can enjoy harvesting her own animals. Hence, I get bombarded with inquires about the guns I shoot, camo I wear, and my motives for partaking in such a sport.  The girl I encountered, as depicted above, had every right to ask that kind of question.  She may have never seen someone (who was her size) who hunts that she could actually relate to.

   I realize that I'm an oddity. I enjoy an ethical hunt, I shoot skeet, wear camo but can also string a couple words together.  When I began writing this blog, I figured that there were a lot of girls like me out there.  But unfortunately with society's new adoption of an anti-hunter attitude, with PETA and animal rights activists who chow down on burgers but work for the plight of the poor moo cows, people seem to be increasingly more ignorant about why hunters do what we do.  We're told over and over that guns are evil and so are the people that operate them.  That eating animals who are "organically" raised is more ethical to consume than a deer who has lived its entire life outside, in the wild.

  With all of the questions, speculation and negative publicity we hunters receive, it is refreshing when someone works to find the truth.  Days ago, I opened my e-mail, hoping that any of the jobs I've applied for had gotten back to me.  While I was downtrodden that no one had responded to my stellar resume, I did get an interesting message.  The e-mail was from an undergraduate student at Winona State University.  A communications study major, Ben, had stumbled across my blog and wanted to see if there was any way that I could help him out with his final project, researching the hunting motivation of females.  Besides being tickled pink that he deemed me acceptable to ask, I was struck that this kind of research can be brought into the realm of academia.  This idea began the wheels turning in my head for the kind of papers I'll write while in graduate school in the fall, including my theories about the Disney movie, "Bambi" and its implications of forcing younger generations to reject their primal instincts as hunters and gatherers, but I digress.  Benjamin sent his list of questions along which I decided I'd tackle as I did at Niagara University.

    So now I've regressed back into my good ol' essay writing days of college. I haven't studied at all, my kitchen is a mess and the only thing in the fridge is beer.  I've sharpened my #2 pencil, my blue books are ready and I've shaken off last evenings festivities in order to crush this final test.

   Name: The Writing Huntress
   Class: Hunting 463
   Professor: Dr. Benjamin

   Question 1: Why do you hunt?

        Funny you should ask, as I dedicated a post to this a handful of months ago.  But to reiterate, I hunt for the things that can only be obtained through the sport.  For the sunrises, sunsets, days spent laughing in the blind and the tranquility of solitude in the stand.  I've seen a fawn being pushed along by her mother, squirrels acting like heroine addicts, and a cat who had a stockpile of dead mice near my stand tree.  I befriended a hoot owl who softly roused me from slumber with his deafening calls as DU slept in a tree 40 yards away, his snores scaring any deer within a 50-mile radius.  Hunting has introduced me to various ways of feeling powerful and strong, which is important for a female of my tiny stature. I love the smell of gunpowder after a perfectly placed 5-stand shot.  I adore the feeling of my bow in my hands, hungry for another arrow.  Hunting speaks to one's ancient self; a way to operate as humans have always lived for centuries before the modern comforts of the present muddled our understanding of what it means to be human, as hunters and gatherers.

   It feels weird but to quote myself, "hunting purges its minions of  all confining things."

   Question 2: Who introduced you to hunting?

       My granddad.  He taught me to fish and injected a passion for safe hunting in my blood, even though it took years for it to cultivate.  My dad taught me how to shoot my first gun and various ex-flames introduced the actual process of hunting.  While I've hunted with men I've dated, it is inaccurate to say that I hunt because of DU, or for any man for that matter.  I hunt because it is what I love to do.

   Question 3: What, if any, motivations do you have to take a spouse/ significant other afield?

         DU and I hunt together but it is generally not within 100 yards of one another.  The first couple of times I hunted here, he stayed close just to ensure that my primary runs of getting up the tree were successful.  In terms of deer hunting, I have no motivation to hunt with DU. (This has nothing to do with the time that he spilled hot chocolate directly under my tree prior to a stand hunt.  Okay- maybe a little.)  There is no reason to, as we can't speak to one another and there are only so many deer on the property we hunt.  I don't need cues from him or need him for anything except entertainment during slow days. This stands in stark contrast to waterfowl hunting, as I have never hunted ducks or geese alone.  Given that it is in duck hunting's essential nature that the hunt be shared by many in a blind, DU and I always hunt together.  The real motivation to bring him out is that he is a superb duck caller while I'm still a novice.  I can't read ducks quite yet so it is nice to have him there to teach me the ropes.  Also, it is always nice to have a 6'5 guy to steal jackets from when the pre-dawn hours bring along a freezing chill.

   Question 4: Has hunting brought you and your significant other closer together?

         Yikes.  Well.  I guess to pass I have to be honest so I'll go with yes and no.  Obviously, DU and I spend a LOT of time dealing with hunting.  We prepare for it, shop for it, try to make next year's season better, and spend at least 8 months out of the year actually taking part in it.  We can talk about things and work out our problems in better ways than I've seen with my peers.   Although this may root from the knowledge that we both are heavily armed, hunting has indeed brought us closer together. If we're upset, we just shoot something (generally not one another) and the world just seems better.  However, we tend to get in a rut during season.  We'll eat, go to work, hunt, eat, sleep, hunt, work, eat and then on the weekends, hunt more.  Also, when DU had more success than I did this season, I was a little jealous.  As we've seen, I'm not the greatest loser.  Hence, when he scored a 6-point buck early on while I struggled and lost a deer on Thanksgiving, I was a little green.  Since I'm obviously not eight years old, I got over my issues and congratulated him after secretly figuring out a way to extract the firing pin in his gun to ensure the next deer harvested would be mine.  But considering the lies, deceit, fighting and bickering I've heard about via my friend's relationships, I don't think we're doing too badly.  Unless, of course, I don't get a turkey this season, then we'll have problems.

   Question 5: If you answered yes to the previous question,  what specific aspect of hunting has brought you together?

   I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we both share something that we love.  I don't hunt for him and DU most certainly does not get up at 2am because I tell him to.  Also, we work together for a common goal.  It isn't as if I'm working to get a deer and he's trying to build the biggest Lego castle in the garage ( I hope DU isn't reading this because he'll probably attempt it..).  As a team we work to fill our freezer with wild turkey, fresh duck and loads of deer. In the same respect, we're efficient outside of the blind as a team, tackling all of what life has to offer.   Most of all, there is something divine about waking up at ridiculous hours, freezing one's backside off, and enduring all of hunting's unpleasant aspects together.  If something negative befalls DU, I know that he isn't going to run away but he'll work it out, just as he did when our boat mysteriously ran up an invisible rock completely by itself.

Bridges looks confused after DU runs our boat up a rock.

   I feel blessed that I can share my passion with DU.  In all honesty, I do not think that I would ever be able to date someone who did not hunt, as he would not understand the amount of time I spend on it, even outside of season. 

   Question 6: If you don't have a spouse or girlfriend, or are going to get rid of the one you have, will you take your future beloved hunting?

        I've put this question to a couple of hunting buddies who flat out refuse to take their girlfriends, wives, mistresses, what have you, out in the blind or stand.  They say that hunting is "man time", that women aren't allowed or even invited.  I've had to toe this line in the past, as I know that there are some trips and excursions that DU embarks on that I cannot.  If I ever do get a chance to go back home to Indiana with him, I know that going goose hunting will be difficult, as a woman has never stepped foot into their underground pit.  Antiquated hunting code still reigns supreme in some circles of men that prohibit their female counterparts from participating.  However, as strong as DU and I are in our relationship, I hope that more men will encourage the women they love to take part so their relationship can grow along with their meat intake.

    Ours is a relationship that began mainly with the common love of hunting.  This is aberrant, as women that I know generally began hunting after meeting someone who hunted.  It is in the hope if this huntress that more women begin hunting for themselves or are encouraged by their partner to do to so.  Either way, from our experience, hunting strengthens relationships.  Except of course, if he bags a bigger deer.

   How I did on this test remains to be seen but Ben needs more information so please- men and women alike- if you have any interest in helping him out or want to express a different opinion, answer the same questions I did here and either post a comment or e-mail him directly.