Blink a couple of times and
the fall hunting season will be here. So it’s time to start checking the
hunting gear.
The clothing industry is here
to help you, while of course, increasing corporate profits.
The clothing folks have a problem.
They have produced too many real leaf/tree camo outfits. Almost every piece of
human apparel now comes in camo. There are camo underpants. Camo thongs. Camo
jock straps. Camo bras.
The clothing lobby has been
all over the politicians and they are getting what they want. Wisconsin, New
York State and Louisiana will allow pink hunting clothing this fall as an
alternate to blaze orange. Other states
are considering doing the same.
I can hear the sewing
machines whirring already, spinning out those hot pink vests, caps, gloves,
jackets and pants. We already have seen pink gunstocks, pink camo bows and
other pink outdoor accessories.
All this pink supposedly is about
attracting more women into hunting. More women hunters means more hunting
clothing and equipment sales. And, more money for governments through sales
taxes and licensing fees.
Many women are not
impressed. Promoting pink in hunting is sexist, they say.
“We felt like it was demeaning to us,” various media quoted Sarah Ingle,
Women’s Hunting and Sporting Association president in Wisconsin. “I feel that
the legislation should have taken a deeper look into why the sport was
declining.”
The Wisconsin government’s time would have been better spent determining
what women really need to become interested in the sport, she said.
It’s hard to argue against
pink as an acceptable hunter safety colour. Fluorescent pink, or hot pink, is easily seen in the
woods.
Pink certainly will not
bother the deer, who are essentially colour blind. Their vision is limited to
the blue-green spectrums, so blaze orange or pink does not stand out for them.
Deer do see ultraviolet,
which can cause some objects to glow, or fluoresce. That’s why hunters are told
not to wash their hunting clothing in detergents with brightening agents that
absorb light in the ultraviolet and violet region.
Allowing pink as safety
colour is part of a drift toward making hunting a more upscale pastime.
Urbanites are seeing it as a fit with the locavore/farm-to-table
movement in which people want to grow, gather or kill their own food.
In trendy neighbourhoods of California, you’ll
find a growing number of fashionable chicken coups, where more people are said
to be signing up for butchering courses.
Another factor has been the Becoming an
Outdoors Woman (BOW) program started back in the 1990s but which has gained
increasing popularity only in recent years. Many U.S. states and six provinces
now have BOW inspired programs that teach shooting, hunting and handling game.
I don’t have any issues with blaze pink as a
hunting colour. It doesn’t compromise safety and it’s always nice to have more
choice. It is insulting, however, to say that allowing women to be pretty in
pink hunters will attract more into the sport.
“That’s terribly insulting,” Peggy Farrell,
national director of BOW in the U.S. was quoted in Peterson’s Hunting. “I don’t
want a youth-model shotgun, and I don’t want pink on everything I wear or carry
when I hunt.”
Women who hunt don’t want pink gear for hunting. They want
gear and clothing that is designed for women’s bodies. Gear and clothing that fit
properly an comfortably.
Malinda White, the Louisiana politician who introduced that
state’s blaze pink bill, is also a hunter and says she didn't consider the
concept sexist.
"It also will generate commerce - I guarantee there are
sewing machines going off right now," she said.
Do you think the clothing lobbyists were whispering in her ear?
Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y
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