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Laws to permit the colour "blaze pink" for hunters have been proposed in five states in the US. How did this become a legislative trend?
As the legislative session drew to a close last week at the Minnesota state capitol, a curious piece of legislation became the focus of ire for lawmakers - a bill to make something called "blaze pink" legal for hunters to wear.
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Last spring, Wisconsin Representative Nick Milroy had the idea that "blaze pink" might also be an acceptable safety colour as well as a way to get some new blood into the sport.He even got a textile scientist at a local university to investigate whether there were any safety concerns.
"The fastest growing segment in new recruits into hunting are females, and that's one of the big reasons that companies have been marketing things like pink camouflage, pink guns, pink knives," he says.
Participation in hunting in the US has been on the decline for decades, and the sport is overwhelmingly dominated by men.
Safety Orange to become Safety Pink?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Sunday May 29 2016, @11:05AM
When such a story comes up, the first and foremost thought is "Eh?" and <facepalm>.
The amount of time spent on first world problems is amazing. Just to have some more branding, sales and profit. It is too easy to look at trivial stuff while the hard stuff might require some thought and backbone.
Sigh.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @11:10AM
I only wish they would spend more time trying to amend the constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman and spelling out exactly who can use which bathroom. That's the BIG stuff.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday May 29 2016, @11:29AM
You sound like Bernie Sanders [washingtonpost.com].
Among the women I know the ones that would hunt aren't motivated by the fashion of the expedition, nor generally own pink-colored items. And the ones that won't hunt aren't going to become hunters because of pink gear, even if they're more inclined to the color.
I'm not much of a fan of pink hats [urbandictionary.com] in general.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @12:10PM
Except when you ask women what they want, let's say, in a car
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_YCC [wikipedia.org]
You either get accused of patronizing sexism or not catering enough to female needs. You just can't win.
And as people are devoting billions of dollars to stamp out every last bit of sexism in video games, tech, science... whatever; you'd think there must be some heavy-duty misogyny keeping women from wanting to make kill shots on bambis.
And no, the gold standard for first world problems is landing a craft on a freaking comet, and being outraged by the shirt the project scientist wore.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by an Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @03:42PM
Or, to summarize, "Everything is sexist! Everything is racist! Everything is homophobic! And, you have to point it all out!"
The only way to win Kobayashi Maru is to throw out the rules that say you can't win and roll your own. You could also go WarGames and just not play their game at all.
Look up double bind theory if you want a broader overview on this.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Sunday May 29 2016, @04:33PM
That's usually because they do things things out of a cynical desire to trick women into buy the items allowing them to jack the prices up.
The features are patronizing and involve accommodations that women really don't need. I doubt that there's women out there that truly can't add washer fluid. It's just a matter of opening the hood, unscrewing the properly marked cap and pouring it in. You definitely don't need to be a mechanic or have any sort of intelligence to do that.
Same thing is going on here with the pink. It's basically just a variant of green washing where they take something that's clearly for men and paint it pink hoping that they won't actually have to do anything to earn women's interest.
The bigger issue is probably that women don't get raised to hunt with the same frequency that men do. There aren't as many hunting programs on TV dedicated to women hunting and the gear that is used for hunting is less likely to come in sizes and styles that are comfortable for women. The color is unlikely to be a factor here.
I'd suggest that painting things pink is probably just going to alienate more women as the sorts of women that were refusing to hunt because it wasn't pink enough are probably not the same women that would be willing to cut the guts out of something they just killed.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @06:31PM
Why should women be excluded from the marketer's eye? Are you telling me that as a class they are unable to sift through the bullshit of most advertising, or are unable to make a coherent statement about what they want from the products they buy?
The car was designed by women. It's at least what a segment of them wanted from a vehicle, and you are poo-pooing their choices. And honestly after decades of working on vehicles myself, I do not begrudge them not wanting to mess with it at all, or making it as idiot-proof as possible.
A mate of mine actually longed for finally being in a peer group that had a marketer's ears. A cast of millions working towards satisfying your every whim? That's power. And damnit, if I want it in pink, I'll get it in pink because my dollars finally have enough pull to change the market to what I want, instead of the compromises I have to sort through for most products.
In my experience, if you show a young girl any cruelty towards animals compared the young boys; it's fairly obvious why more women don't hunt. That's a mental block to be overcome, and it may start with something as simple as making it a bit more feminine.
And wouldn't you know:
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/112507/loc_112507065.shtml#.V0szyOTZeuI [lubbockonline.com]
Is the pink ribbon campaign sexist as well?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Francis on Sunday May 29 2016, @07:39PM
Nice straw man, I never said that they shouldn't market to women. But, if making things pink and calling it a day is what you consider marketing to women, then I'm not even sure how to respond.
Yes, I'm poo-pooing their choices because they're insulting. I'm not sure it's any less sexist because women are making the car. I'm not sure The fact that it was developed to appeal to women is a fact that women ought to be offended by.
Where's your evidence that there's enough people out there demanding pink color hunting gear? Women have been hunting for a long time and somehow now we need to make things pink in order to appeal to them?
And yes, of course the pink ribbon campaign is sexist. You'd have to have some sort of severe shortage of brain cells not to recognize it as a cynical attempt at getting at women's pocket books. Beyond the fact that women are more likely to be killed by heart disease, there's the choice of color there. There's no particular reason why it needs to be pink and at this point, it's just a con as a lot of those products that are pink don't even give money to any respected charity. They're sole purpose is to trick people into giving them money when the only benefit that society derives from it is "awareness." I don't know about other countries, but we're pretty aware of breast cancer in the US.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @05:24AM
From your link:
Must have breast tissue where the brain was supposed to go... this kind of thinking leads me to believe women are disconnected from things like hose and belt inspections and maintenance, coolant, oil, and battery inspections, power steering and brake maintenance, and the ever present alternator and water pump wear. We have sure been conditioned to accept "feminine" to mean "complete lack of common sense", where fashion trumps function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @10:02AM
A good number of luxury brands (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Porsche) are doing away with the oil dipstick. No way to manually check the oil. As I've heard it described, no one (in that price segment at least) checks their own oil anyway.
Is this a triumph of engineering? Capitulating to market forces? Or perhaps fashion over function?
Is it feminine?
Give it another 80 years these same ladies will be celebrated as "innovating" the low maintenance car paradigm ahead of industry leaders.
And even then, if the current zeitgeist holds, it will still be written as sexist that they weren't given proper recognition in their own time.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday May 31 2016, @05:35AM
I believe they will also drive the new-car market, as they will need a new car about every three years, and their tow-in will be worth about zero.
Just drive it 'till it locks up. No need to smog it. Once it begins burning oil, it has about four quarts to go, followed by engine seizure.
At that point, simply buy another.
Goes against everything in me, but seeing how everything else in my life has become so ephemeral, oh well...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]