Hunting pink is the new orange
Richard Stuart likes to hunt. Just not all dolled up in pink.
Which is why the Virginia state senator, a Republican from the Washington exurb of Stafford, sounded a little sheepish recently as he pitched a hunting bill on the floor of Richmond’s august upper chamber.
“Um,” he began. “This just authorizes some alternative fashions for deer hunters. They’re required to wear blaze orange now. But those that prefer could wear blaze pink.”
Hot pink, a colour associated with Barbie Dreamhouses and pretty, pretty princesses, is poised to invade the traditionally macho world of deer hunting.
Already required to wear Day-Glo orange to decrease the odds they’ll be mistaken for Bambi, Virginia hunters would have the option of sporting fluorescent pink under a bill that cleared General Assembly recently. Gov. Terry McAuliffe is expected to sign it into law.
The measure reflects the growing participation of women and girls in what has always been a maledominated pastime.
The number of female hunters has doubled over the past 15 years, a trend thought to have been nudged along by high-profile female hunters such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and the fictional Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.
Four states — Colorado, Louisiana, New York and Wisconsin — now allow hunters to wear fluorescent pink in addition to the traditional orange, said Jennifer Schultz, senior policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Legislation is pending in Montana and Minnesota, though it failed in the latter state just last year.
It also was rejected in Illinois and Maine in recent years. Michigan is studying whether “hunter pink” or any other colours would be effective and safe.
His idea sparked a lengthy — and colourful — conversation among lawmakers of both genders in the General Assembly about whether the change was empowering to women, sexist or even dangerous.
Some hunters say it’s best to be on the lookout for just one safety colour.
Some feminists have embraced hot pink as a symbol of “girl power,” most recently during the Women’s March on Washington, where knitted pink “pussycat” hats were meant as a visible retort to President Donald Trump’s boast about grabbing women’s genitals.
Caroline Edmunds, the delegate’s 13-year-old daughter, said she’d like to wear pink when she goes hunting with her dad and brother.
But she doesn’t expect any of her non-hunting friends to take an interest in the sport because of the colour.
“I think it’s a nice option, but I don’t think orange is really the reason that stops them,” she said.
Hunting remains a male-dominated sport, but women and girls are its fastest growing demographic, according to the Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The number of female hunters nearly doubled from 2001 to 2015, from 1.8 million to 3.4 million, while the number of male hunters shrank from nearly 16 million to 14.6 million over that period.
Nineteen per cent of hunters are female, up from about 10 per cent in 2001.