In way, I suppose we could feel sorry for Kendall Jones and people like her. Although she’s old enough to follow her daddy’s example as a conscienceless trophy hunter, she may too young and inexperienced in the ways of the world to understand how men really see her. Girls like that must not get that males— especially during hunting season, when their blood is up with the urge to kill—don’t really see them as equal hunting partners. They objectify them just as the girls objectify the animals they target.

On the other hand, as a cheerleader in Texas you’d think she’d be used to being leered at, drooled over and thought of only as an object. It would appear that killing animals and taking trophies of her own is a classic case of the mechanism known as transference of victimhood. (Transference of victimhood is a common coping mechanism for those who have been abused themselves or for those who feel their over-inflated egos have not been stroked enough.) Men have used this mechanism for as long as the human species has existed, taking out their aggressions on “their” women or anyone else they think they can pick on. Serial killers and other misogynists kill or attack random women as surrogate victims, to compensate for their perceived inadequacies.

Sport hunters, out hoping for a trophy set of antlers to boost their flagging self-esteem, objectify not only the animals, but also the women of a given area. Pretty young girls are seen as “fresh meat” and a beautiful woman is a potential conquest.

In trying to please their daddies, young girls sometimes want to be like them, though most aren’t obsessed with killing every beautiful animal they see and trying to pass it off as “conservation.” Perhaps, after years of intensive counseling, Kendall Jones will grow out of it. Until then, let’s hope she continues to bury her mothering instincts. The last thing this world needs is a brood of trophy-hunter wannabes out trying to impress their murderous mommy.

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson