I have never been the girl who worried about what people thought about me. I always did my own thing, even if it was against the grain. Lately, I have found myself standing in a world of constant judgement for nearly every choice I make. If I wear makeup, I’m insecure. If I discipline my kids, I am a bad mom. If I hunt, I am a murderer. If I don’t have enough social media followers, I am not good enough to be considered Pro Staff? Wait, what….
Last year, I was new, in a sense, to the hunting industry. While having been a consumer for many years, Wildlife Women has opened many doors to new opportunity for me as a hunter. (Yes, hunter because I don’t need make it sound girly.) I was offered “staff” positions with a couple companies. I jumped on them thinking I had reached some level of awesomeness that I had never imagined. The applications for these companies included the usual information. Why would you want to be a part of this company? What qualifications do you have? But the one that got me was, what social media do you use and your usernames. Okay, cool. They are going to look me up and see if I am legit, right? Next question, how many followers do you have? What’s that got to do with the price of apples in China? I reached out to one of said companies. I suggested that with my years of experience, I felt like I was a more of a pro staff, than field staff. Their suggestion was to build my social media following. Make more posts about hunting with professional looking pictures. Don’t post as much about your kids. Participate in things like #WCW. Try to get pages to feature your picture so more people see you. I tried all those things but somehow felt like I wasn’t being true to myself. It was like I was compromising who I am to make someone pick me for their team. I was kinda embarrassed.
No, not cool. I don’t want more followers. I want more respect. I can hunt it, kill it, clean and cook it. I can safely handle any weapon you put in my hands. I can defend myself and my family. I can build a fire. I can run a weed eater and restring that sucker when it runs out. Hell, I can out man most men and look good doing it but you wanna tell me my worth is based on the number of people who look at my posts on social media?
I am not designed to that way. If you wanna follow me, here’s what to expect. My kids because I am a mom and its probably the greatest thing I have ever and will ever do. Selfies in the woods because it’s my happy place and I love it. Animals, both pets and well, I am a hunter, so dead ones. Wildlife Women events. Here’s what you won’t see… half naked pictures of me shooting guns or bows, the hashtag #followforfollow or any other thing that someone else thinks makes me worthy in their opinion. And if my 2k followers isn’t good enough for you to respect me for what I am, guess I’ll find someone else who does.
If this post offends you, it probably should.