Comedian and actor W.C. Fields famously mused, “Marry an outdoorswoman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive.”
This Women’s History Month, however, women who recreate outdoors have been deemed insufficiently female for displaying so-called “tomboy” tendencies. Vile attacks were lobbed at outdoor influencer and avid noodler Hannah Barron, who boasts millions of followers across social media. One X user said Barron is “filth” for wrangling catfish and boasting a southern drawl. Another commenter claimed outdoorsy “tomboys” such as Barron suffer from mental illness and gender confusion.
As an avid outdoorswoman who, like Barron, also fishes and hunts, I take great offense to this wildly inaccurate caricature.