Tinder: Women Hunters Should Look for Love Elsewhere

Reader Nichole M. writes:

I’m a native Vermonter and lifelong outdoorswoman. I grew up hunting, fishing, shooting competitive archery, the works. After seeing so many profiles of men holding fish or posing with deer on the popular dating app Tinder, I decided to do the same thing.

I harvested a nice nine-point buck during last year’s rifle season, the biggest buck I’ve ever shot in my 23 years of hunting. So…I uploaded a picture of myself posing with the deer to my Tinder profile.

A few weeks later on a trip to San Fransisco within hours of landing, I was notified that my Tinder account had been banned. Someone had reported my profile.

I contacted Tinder through their support email, only to be informed that my content violated their terms of service and community guidelines. They say they “take violations….very seriously” but with no additional explanation provided.

Because they currently don’t have an appeals process, the ban was (and is) permanent. Do a few google searches for guys on Tinder with deer (or better, fish) and you’ll find plenty of male profiles there with similar photos.

But the same person who reported my profile took it one step further. He found contact information for my employer’s website and sent a harassing email to our general sales account with screenshots of my profile, calling me “a disaster” and “classless”.

Because I can no longer access the Tinder platform, I can’t report the individual for harassment. I again contacted Tinder support to ask about an alternative reporting process and received no response.

Thankfully, my employer’s reaction to the situation:  “We hired a chick who hunts. So what?”

If bagging a trophy buck means being banned from Tinder, I’ll take it — and I’ll wear it as a badge of honor while enjoying my venison and cleaning my hunting rifles. Enjoy your fish, gentlemen. I’m still proud of this buck.