Ok firstly, calm down! This is not a post about weirdo, stalkers of women, I’m referring to my viewing last night.
My mind is currently boggled! I’ve watched Women Who Kill Lions and I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why you would want to kill something defenseless, for sport or just for the craic! It’s not attacking you, it’s nowhere near you, yet you have gone, sometimes travelled thousands of miles and stalked it out to shoot it.
There were two women featured on the the show and both have suffered serious online backlash, with Ricky Gervais adding fuel to one fire via Twitter. I’m not going to name them, as the cockier one of the two, a Canadian, pointed out, not only does she not care what people think but the more people talk about how disgusting she is, the more famous she becomes. Bizarrely, AND I’M NOT AGREEING WITH HER ACTIONS, the American came across (to me) as the slightly nicer of the two (as in, if I met both women on the street without knowing of them, I’d probably take to the American more).
So the American, from Wyoming reckons that it’s part of their culture to hunt, being from the West and all. Maybe it is and it’s important to preserve our culture and heritage but is it really necessary to hunt as she does? I’m pretty sure there are supermarkets now. It also really bothers me that from a young age kids are encouraged to hunt, hence encouraged to use guns… American gun laws are utterly ridiculous as it is. During the program, we’re taken on a gun shopping spree with the American, where we’re shown lots of lovely guns, some are even pink, you know, pretty for the girly girls. The bit that gets me most is where she lovingly strokes a smaller pink rifle saying it’s “awesome that they’re not just selling it to women but for little girls too”. WHAT THE JAYZUS?? THEY SPECIFICALLY MAKE GUNS FOR LITTLE HANDS!!!!!! This woman also seems to think it’s AWESOME for the kids to be outside rather than stuck inside on the computer. On this I couldn’t agree more but that’s where we differ, I’m quite happy and content with my son just going outdoors and climbing trees without throwing a gun and shooting sh*t into the mix! I mean there has to be 101 other things you can do to make the big wide “boring” outdoors more exciting than kill animals? Go and break a few neighbours windows if you really need a buzz!
Now the Canadian, much cockier and was pretty blatant about how little she cares about how anyone feels towards her for her actions. So far she has killed 29 different species, with her 10yr old son accompanying her on many of the trips (he’s currently gearing up for his first bear hunt!!!!) One of these kills was a lion, at which she seems very emotional about and by emotional, I mean pleased! I just don’t understand it….how are people allowed to do this? It’s not like lions are over running the world…aren’t they on their way to making it onto the endangered species list? I might understand if they were given free reign on something like pigeons, pigeons are a menace but not lions or zebras. I’m not sick of seeing zebras, I think I’d like to see few more to be fair. This woman’s next hunt will be a rhino, which she will graciously “greenhunt” (use a tranquilizer dart rather than a bullet). She then says an elephant will be next on her list, her friend asks why she can’t greenhunt that, to which she basically just says, nah mate don’t fancy it. She actually has no valid reason for killing an elephant….this astounds me!
Canadian woman sees herself exactly where we humans are meant to be…hunting. We are carnivores and it’s in our nature to hunt. Canadian also points out she did eat some of the lion, although I kinda feel like she’s just saying that, using the old “kill to eat” line to justify it a little. It’s almost a little strange that we do get upset by what these women do, as we raise animals to eat every day, maybe it’s just that the rest of us work off a fairly set list of whats acceptable to kill and eat and what’s not. I can see both women’s points a little on the “we are natural hunters” side of things, as without evolution I guess that’s where we’d be, but with evolution it’s where we’ve moved from too and killing animals for sport shouldn’t be acceptable. The thing is though hunting is big business in some of these places and thanks to governmental greed, if there’s money to be made then it’s unlikely to stop any time soon.
I found it kind of funny when the American woman spoke about the famous giraffe picture that instigated the Twitter assault. Apparently there were lots of valid reasons for killing this particular giraffe…he could no longer produce the goods to make a baby, he’d been kicked outta his gang, this lad was ready to die, not a bean worth living for so he may as well be hunted. Shur if he wasn’t he’d just go to waste! I just kept thinking of a little old grandad…oh shur listen lads, Grandad’s just a dried up old fossil now and we don’t really like hanging out with him anymore so lets just do him in! Could you imagine if that’s how we treated each other?? My God!! American woman also pointed out that it was good for that particular community, the economy even, that she’d shot the giraffe rather than him just dying and rotting out in the bush somewhere, at least this way they got some use out of him!
I also find it a bit weird that the American went hunting whilst pregnant with her daughter and took her young son along with her, after (I’m assuming) a bout of morning sickness! I feel strange in that, she was pregnant, growing a life and knowingly going out and taking a life…killing a life. It’s just weird and a bit unsettling. I guess it’s just hard to imagine a life giving woman as a life taker. Weirder still, is that I’m a little annoyed with myself for feeling this way, as doesn’t it seem a little sexist, almost like saying women can’t be hunters?
Did any of you see the show?
Donna x
totallydonnamarie 