“It wasn’t just safety concerns that prompted Drew Born to come from Grand Rapids to Lansing to testify this week in support of allowing hunters to wear pink in addition to blaze orange when they head to the woods in search of deer,” freep.com reports . . .
It was also about ensuring that women look cute when they hoist their guns or bow and arrows.
For the record, the notion that women love pink is completely ridiculous. Maybe I cared for pink as a child (not really, I was a tomboy). But that’s something we “girls” grow out of, like boys with baby blue.
“Women prefer to always look and feel attractive (even while hunting), having pink as an option can help with any insecurities over what they are wearing,” read a memo from Born that was handed to members of the House Natural Resources Committee during a meeting this week on a bill that would allow hunter pink.
“Pink is a color that can immediately identify a female, women don’t want to be mistaken for a man, even from a distance or in the woods.”
The memo prompted an outpouring of eye rolls and outrage from at least one lawmaker and dozens more on social media who found the sentiment both insulting and wrong.
I know, right?
“This has gone from silly to offensive. This memo is so out of touch,” said state Rep. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, whose phone started blowing up after he posted a picture of the memo on Twitter. “I don’t think a bunch of men need to tell women what they should wear to make themselves feel attractive while they’re out in the woods hunting.
“Women across the country realize that men should no longer be speaking for them, not only on their fashion sense, but on more pressing issues in the state,” Moss added. “This borders on the absurd.”
In case my thoughts on the subject of pink camo weren’t clear . . .
Laura Marsh, a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, supplied a typical response on Twitter: “For years men have wondered- what do women rly want? Pay equity? No. Access to healthcare?? Nah… just to feel cute while hunting.”
Comedian and TV personality Chelsea Handler also picked up on the Twitter trend: “Yes, women always love to pink. It’s the only color we love.”
Pink does not make me feel attractive, more capable as a hunter or happy for that matter. In fact, pink can just die.
Fun fact: Some prisons paint their cell blocks pink to calm prisoners. Perhaps men want us to wear pink in the woods to distract them from their anxiety?