Fear No Evil - Springfield Armory
Live By The Rules. Your Own. - Gerber knives
Shoot Like An Expert - ParaOrdinance GI Expert Series
Reliable - Refined - Respected - Remington
Unparalleled, Unprecedented and Unleashed - Camillus Cutlery
Ultimate Shooting Machine - Smith&Wesson M&P
Those taglines make you feel like you can take on the world and come out on top. Just walking through SHOT Show, seeing all of those taglines, is like a shot of adrenaline.
Strong.
Empowering.
Exactly what the manufacturers and their marketing people want.
The Softer Side of Shooting - Shooting for Women Alliance
What?
Excuse me while I regain my balance and catch my breath.
Really?
I am a woman shooter.
I am strong.
I am empowered.
I am strong.
I am empowered.
I am NOT the softer side of shooting. There is *nothing* soft about shooting.
While, logically, I understand the marketing behind the SFWA's tagline - they want to encourage women to join the shooting sports - I angers me on a visceral level.
Shooters - especially women shooters - should be empowered, not coddled. Nothing makes me angrier than men who look at women shooters as "cute little thangs" who are just "playing" at shooting.
I'm deadly serious about my shooting, and any woman who takes it up for sport or defense needs to be as well.
In addition to being angered by the tagline, I feel betrayed by my own gender. Because it wasn't a male who came up with that tagline. Nope. It was a woman.
I agree that women shooters need to stand together; I agree that there needs to be a safe place for women who are shooters or women who are interested in shooting, which is why Mrs Mom and I came up with this blog. However, women should not buy into the implication that we are "soft".
If we don't take ourselves seriously as shooters, how can we expect anyone else to?
We are women shooters.
We are strong.
We are empowered.
We are NOT soft.
I don't shoot myself (yet) but I have a lot of friends who do and "soft" is not a word I would associate with any of them.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a mind-set that goes hand-in-hand with shooting. That's why we push ATTITUDE so much.
ReplyDeleteI am target shooter, when the opportunity presents. (Not near often enough without a range for 40 miles.) I am strong. I am confident. I am loving. I am a damned good shot. But I am NOT soft.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how tough and Empowered you are you better maintain a soft touch with the booger hook on the bang button!!!!!!
ReplyDeletejust saying...
Kat - yay!
ReplyDeleteOh, Mr Daddy. You are right. Easy with the booger hook on the bang button.
Dude only thing "soft" about me these days is my soggy middle section. When it comes to my firearms? Yeah. No. Not even a bit.
ReplyDeleteShooting is a deadly serious game. Yes, it is fun as HELL to plink away at targets. It is AMAZING stress relief/ therapy too. Wonderful exercise for trigger fingers. But soft? Yeeahhh... No.
I'm sorry, SWFA, but THIS woman shooter finds your tag line misleading, borderline insulting and rather derogatory. I have had to battle every.single.day in my chosen profession in the equine industry to NOT be patted on the head by "the good old boys", and coddled into submission. I'll be DAMNED if that same group of guys is going to look at me and (try to) patronize me more when I step out onto the range.
Ladies, please be aware. This is not a clean sport for princesses who wish to remain soft and pretty all the time. This sport, when practiced properly, will leave you with grit, dirt, dust, maybe a few brass burns now and then and a deep seated sense of satisfaction that no amount of cuddling and sweet talking can give. Ladies, it teaches you self reliance. Awareness. Survival skills. ATTITUDE.
Off my soap box now.... Center Mass y'all.
Mmmmnnnn.. I kinda like it. Why? Because I feel it is just the sort of opener to hook those 'softer' women.
ReplyDeleteI see men bring their wives or girlfriends to the range all of the time to teach them how to shoot. I don't know if it's a matter of ego or just plain not thinking on the part of the man but some of them will have their better half shoot a higher caliber weapon right off the bat. I've literaly have seen women shoot one shot and almost break down in tears. I swear, some of them put down that gun and look like they are about to walk away.
Often, if I think it will help... I'll go down to their bench and feel them out and if I can I try to get my little
Walther P22 in their hands. Almost immediatly I see a light come on behind her eyes. Shooting can be fun!
I guess what I am trying to say is that every woman should have a chance at learning how to defend themselves and maybe this would be one way to get the more timid kind empowered to do so.
Muah!
Finski - I get where they're coming from. I really do. But it still offends the hell out of me.
ReplyDeleteI often find the same thing at ranges, which is why I encourage women shooters to find someone OTHER than their significant other to teach them to shoot. Tara and I often spend out "girls days" out at the range rescuing women from their well-intentioned SOs.
LOL GunDiva!! 'Rescuing'!! But sad at the same time.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
My hubby is awesome... I just point and say "I likey" and whatever it is magically appears about a week or two later.... he finds the most awesome deals!
Finski - color me jealous. Does he want a second wife?
ReplyDelete