julietx
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Aug 2009
Location:
Posts: 207 |
I appreciate all who have replied to my thread. I am not an overly sensitive person, nor am I the kind of woman who cries sexism over every single thing. In fact, I can't stand people who play the victim all the time. However, when I think I am being told that I cannot do something I want to do because I am a woman, that does upset me. I do NOT even consider myself a feminist, and I think a lot of the stuff the radicals advocate is garbage. However, regardless of gender, I think a person should be able to pursue their passion unless there is a legitimate reason they shouldn't. For instance, I am a proud member of the military, but I do NOT believe women should be in direct combat roles. My job in the military is a desk job, and that's how I serve. Not even all men are combat material so women sure are not.
If my father had told me something like, "If you had been a boy would might have played varsity football", that would NOT have bothered me at all. There is a legitimate reason why women should not play football, at least not on the men's varsity team or on any team with men. However, there is not legitimate reason why I could not or should not coon hunt and be a coon hunter. Sure, there are lots of things that could happen to a person out in the woods, but most of those things could happen to a man or a woman. Granted, people would think of it differently if it happened to a woman. If that's all my father meant, then I'm fine with that and love him for thinking of my safety. Fathers will always be more protective of daughters. That's the way it is and the way it should be. Even Sarah Palin's father, who raised her to be a hunting buddy, still refers to her affectionately as his "little girl". That's great. However, to tell me I can't do something is wrong.
As I said, things rarely bother me. In fact, I can usually laugh at things that may make other women mad. However, that statement cut me pretty good, and it did hurt me. If all my father is worried about is my safety, then fine. Men and women are different. If they weren't, they wouldn't be attracted to each other. The dynamic will always be different. I'm not saying I can be a coon hunter exactly the way I could if I was a man. Naturally, I will have to be more careful on who I would go hunting with, and whether they were trustworthy or not. But that doesn't mean I can't hunt or be a coon hunter. It just means that I'll have to be a bit more cautious than a man would. And as far as going to the woods alone, it's probably not the wisest thing for anyone to do male or female. I admit that until I get experienced and used to being in the woods at night that I would not consider going all by myself. After I would get experience, it would depend on where I was I suppose.
And as for men wanting to go with no women for "me" time, I'm fine with that. If a group wants to go and have "guy time" without any women, I have no problem and would be in total support. That's no different than having a guys' night out or a girls' night out doing whatever you may like. Both men and women desire that sometimes.
And to the poster who said that my father changed his tune to be politically correct, you obviously don't know my father. He has never been politically correct a day in his life. He is so easily influenced by things. If back when he hunted there had been women he probably would have thought nothing of it. He can accept things if the right people influence him. For instance, he is a funeral director, and back when he started there were little if no women in that profession. However, in recent years there have been lots of women funeral directors, and he likes and respects them. My father is from a generation that thought boys being in the marching band was sissy. I was in band in high school, and my father always said that the boys in there were sissy and not men.
All I want is to be able to do what I want to do. I have a passion for hounds. I always have and always will. To the person who asked what mine and my father's history were, he was out of coon hunting probably by the time I was 5. So, whether I'd been a boy or a girl, I couldn't have grown up hunting with him. He did take me once when I was about 2 or 3. I don't remember it, but he said I had my own light and was following him around in the woods. I can't figure my father out because before he said what he did, he said he wanted to call up one of his old hunting buddies and take me hunting with them. My father has never been consistent. Who knows?
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01-05-2011 01:52 PM
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