An Ecofeminist Critique of Western Hunting Practices

Extensive feminist work has discussed the various forms of oppression that are enacted on marginalized genders by men to reify their masculine identity. Ecofeminists, who posit that oppression against women, animals, and the environment is interconnected, have expanded the feminist conception of who is oppressed by masculinity to animals and the environment. Recreational hunting plays a quintessential role in many men’s normative gender development and is directly exploitative towards nature and animals; ecofeminists have shown that it operates within a framework that objectifies and exploits women. This project employs an ecofeminist lens to discuss the following: How some justifications for hunting rely on the notion that men are inherently violent, the link between compulsory heterosexuality and hunting, hunting’s contribution to the masculine identity, and the early conservation movement’s relationship to hunting. I also analyzed a recent issue of a hunting magazine for evidence of the discussed themes to provide further evidence to the growing body of ecofeminist scholarship.