In one of the most ridiculous hunting bills to be introduced in a long time, Wisconsin hunters would be allowed to wear blaze pink in the deer woods during gun season.
State Reps. Joel Kleefisch (R) and Nick Milroy (D) said they hoped it would encourage more Wisconsinites to hunt and appeal to women and new hunters.
“Wisconsin has historically had some of the highest participation rates in hunting… and we’ve seen a decrease in this number in recent years,” Milroy said. “It’s my hope that this will become universally acceptable…”
Universally acceptable?
There is no doubt that more women and young girls are getting into hunting, and that is great. And it is true that lots of manufacturers are making pink clothes and even bows to appeal to them. But at the risk of being dubbed a sexist, I think women and girls like and look good in camouflage and orange too.
In fact, this push for pink can be seen as pandering to older female hunters. As a really good huntress once told me, “I don’t wear pink to work, and I don’t wear it to hunt deer. It kind of offends me that men think we have to wear girly stuff to hunt.”
I doubt that any of you Wisconsin men and boys would wear pink (I hope not at least) but is there scientific evidence that it would be okay?
Majid Sarmadi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and textile expert, said his lab analysis of fluorescent pink proved it had similar or better visibility to humans as blaze orange, and therefore would be just as safe.
Call me old-school and definitely of the wrong gender, but I can’t see it.
Pink is for girls & girly men! If they want to wear it while hunting, more power to them.
To Me this issue is neither here nor there, I don’t care what you wear. But as previously stated, the drop in hunter numbers is directly correlated to lower deer numbers and higher wolf numbers. Fixing issues that aren’t the root cause of the problem won’t fix the problem in the long run
Can’t see it….Don’t want it…..Won’t do it! If wearing pink is somebody’s idea of how to get more hunters in the woods, they need to do more research. My suggestion is more education and maybe some wild game fries to draw people and introduce them to the benefits of hunting. If pink is your bag….hey…have at it! Me….Camo for bow and orange for gun if I need it.
I won’t be wearing it, but no big deal seeing others wearing it.
Wisconsin is seeing a drop in hunters because we are seriously dropping deer #’s in certain areas, especially northern WI, some of the public lands, and the areas where the wolves are at. People are getting tired of not seeing much in those areas. Outside of those areas, plenty of deer around.
It maybe will increase “opening weekend” hunters for the first couple of years, but I doubt anything significant for the long haul.
If the point is getting more people into the woods and the pink has “similar or better visibility to humans as blaze orange”, then what’s the big deal?
At that point, hunters could decide for themselves……….