The Hunter Has Become The Huntresses

by The Writer

You Can’t Stop A Woman From Shopping

In the days of the close-knit tribesmen, the hunting and gathering society was primarily men.  And the women remained behind to nest and nurture the young.  The men ventured off into the unknown wild, focusing on the hunt and finding resources to survive.  Returning home without any goods was looked upon with disfavour…

Fortunately those days are behind us, and large-scale corporations conveniently give us the things we spent hours trying to hunt in easy to find places.  The pressure is off, yet most men still feel they are indeed the hunter/gatherer.  However, I don’t believe it’s true.  I could be over analyzing things again, but in my pursuit to understand women I think I’m onboard with the new theory.  Through astute observation, I’ve come to understand how shopping has become the new definition of hunter-gatherer,  and it seems women are at the forefront of this old frontier.  It used to be that the men would round up a hunting party, stalk into the wild and ‘shop’ for something to eat energized by the element of uncertainty and death.

Like any good hunt there is an element of death in shopping, which is why the phrase ‘shop till you drop’ is tossed around like a razor-sharp spear.  The mental and physical exhaustion of the task shouldn’t be taken lightly.  A ‘spree’ sounds like a dream come true, but I don’t need to go into detail about a woman’s mental state during ‘Black Friday’, a wedding gown sample sale, or just hearing the word ‘sale’…. With the battle lines clearly drawn the wild isn’t the lush green unknown environment, it’s the industrial, well-organized Walmart’s, department and grocery stores.  It’s mostly women braving the bustling domains of Costco and other big box stores hunting for bargains on resources we need (or so we believe) to survive.  Isn’t it similar to how lions and lionesses run their prides, no?

Though I enjoy shopping, and while I agree there’s some therapeutic benefits to it, I couldn’t help feel it was somewhat of a self-indulgent act.  This feeling plagued me, and of course I had to figure out why so I could change my beliefs.  I’ve heard the phrase, ‘he may wear the pants, but it’s me who shops for them’, more than I can remember, and I never gave it much thought until now.  Women account for the majority of consumerism– Could that be why shopping is considered a feminine thing, and frowned upon by most?  Indeed consumerism has its flaws, but so does hunting Bambi’s mother for sport.

As more women take on the challenge of the hunt, they release the task of the nesting-nurturer to men… A job most men are still learning, but have shown some promise.  And if you think about it, the new nesting nurturer’s are high paid executives conceiving ways to convinces hunter gatherers to care about particular brands of 4-ply toilet paper.  So how should men handle this old frontier?  Gather a posse and venture into Costco on a Saturday afternoon for some groceries and show those women, we still got it what it takes to make the kill.