Being a female airsofter in a male dominated sport.

Hey everyone!

Here's a blog post I've been planning on doing for a while, a piece about what it's like to be a female airsofter in such a male dominated sport. The shooting game isn't just an old boys club anymore. Women are the fastest growing demographic in shooting sports, these sports include hunting, target shooting, airsoft and archery.

 

As you all know I belong to the airsofting category and although we are heavily outnumbered by the lads, we are growing in numbers. Since the start of my blog it has been my mission to get more girls into the game and this is something I am hugely passionate about! Now female airsofters are indeed a rare breed, and although we don't ask for any special treatment, because there are so few of us we do face some incredibly varied reactions from the airsoft community.

Now, I have been playing airsoft since 2011, but took a short hiatus until August 2014, so I have been playing regularly for around 6 months - now I don't claim to be an expert on the sport - I'm just a girl who loves to pew pew but I do know a fair bit. Have you ever gone into a video game shop and been asked by an assistant 'Are you looking for your boyfriend/brother/dad?' that's how it feels being a female airsofter sometimes, now most of the Airsoft community is helpful, encouraging and supportive but you do get some class A sexists who will give you unsolicited advice on your gear - like you're incapable of creating a decent loadout by yourself or they act like you have no idea what you want and try to school you with their arm chair degree in Google in the most condescending tone they can muster. Sometimes it also feels like some male airsofters have never seen a woman before, let alone a female softer. After introducing myself on a Facebook group I received over 20 friend requests from random men, 50 messages, 200 likes and 243 comments on the post. A little much? I'd say so haha. Most were being friendly saying hello and being really encouraging etc but you do get a few lads commenting, asking things such as 'Who helped you with your load out?' or 'Why is this one out of the kitchen?', 'Marry me' which are all needless to say, quite off putting! Haha
Then there's a whole other breed of guys - the ones that won't shoot a woman, or tell others to go easy on you. Let me tell you something, I won't go easy on you, for all intents and purposes we're at war and I want to win. If you run at me and decide not to shoot me because I am a girl, I promise you that you will get lit up like a Christmas tree. I want to be treated like an equal so if you can see me, shoot me!

The only other problem I have encountered is catty female airsofters. Now I support all women getting into the sport, so why are some women just so catty towards other women? I have no idea. But as there is so few of us in the sport we should stick together and build each other up but it seems that for some the agenda is to break others down. This cattiness includes receiving abusive messages off other female airsofters or the more subtle of the two, the one who comments on every thread I comment on trying to undermine what I say or to make fun of the fact I love the colour pink. I love pink, get over it ;)

Still, all this doesn't put me off, instead it makes me work harder and push myself more to put to rest the stereotypes and it makes all the great things about being a female airsofter that much better! I have met some great friends through airsoft and there's definitely a sense of camaraderie between our team. The encouragement and support you get is fantastic and the community is more than happy to help with advice about equipment and guns. But that's not the only great thing!
Retailers are finally realising that girls are into this so they are producing more gear and accessories for women. Take the G&G Femme Fatale range of M4s, they are fabulous, so fabulous I brought two! Mechanix have made a set of pink gloves - although we could do with them in a size small for those of us with tiny hands ;) One thing I am really excited about is the collaborations that Wicked Wear Co is producing with some fabulous Slaydies - Unicorn Leah, Airsoft Hasmeen and P90 Girl. It's great to see some tactical gear especially for women! 2015 will be a great year to be a female softer :)

Kelly xo