Voices of Prois...Pendulum Of Women In The Field
By: Prois Staffer & Idaho State Coordinator- Aby Rinella
I was raised by a mama that hunted. From the time I was little I watched her throw on her camo and head out. Often with my dad, sometimes with her girlfriends, and later, with us kids. It never struck me as anything but normal.
Fast forward a few decades, and I am raising my own girls- girls that started out as babies on my back in the field and are now not only carrying their own weight, but helping carry the family’s weight as well, as we hunt, harvest, and pack out together.
Growing up with women hunters being “the norm,” and now raising some amazing young women hunters myself has me noticing a changing landscape in the world of our kind. What I find gives me pause and stirs a desire to shed light on what it really means to be a woman in the field. 
I see the pendulum swing between the “Prove Yourself” female hunter and the “Sell Yourself” huntress-both missing the mark on the beauty of what it truly means to be a woman hunter.
The “Prove Yourself” woman is out there trying to compete, not just with the men, but with other women as well, as she desperately tries to break out of her own feminine nature and reshape what it means to be a woman in the field. I notice a striving to prove herself to everyone else with so much intensity that she misses the opportunity to embrace who she is and her connection to what she is doing.
On the other side of the pendulum you find the “Sell Yourself” huntress- the poster girl for the objectification and sexualization of the feminine in the field. It seems to be more about the desire of the onlooker than for her own love of the pursuit and the peace found in the wild.
Between those two extremes you find the rest of us- the women hunters who feel no competition with men, because we are comfortable in our own femininity, and no competition with other women, because we celebrate our sisters in the field pursuing connection and encouragement amongst us.
We are out there because it is in our blood, because we love it, and because it is where we can breathe. We are out there because, rather than trying to draw attention to ourselves, we are free to simply be ourselves.
It is who we are, not something we are trying to portray.
The beauty of the wild is that it doesn’t care what you are trying to prove, and it cares even less about you bring to it. It is simply there, in all its glory, making it the freest place to shed all the pressures of portraying a certain kind of woman in the field, and simply be one.
Let us take back what it means to be a woman hunter. Let us feel neither the need to prove ourselves nor to sell ourselves. Let us embrace the wild authentically, thriving as the women we were created to be, surrounded by the creation we stand in awe of.
