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<p>Guilty as charged, LOL. I just don’t get the gun thing at all. Having said that, I’d hope that if I were a reader for a college, I’d be able to put that aside and focus on what the essay said about the person. (They like inflicting pain on animals!)</p>
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<p>… she cried as she sipped Chardonnay and supped on wild caught salmon followed by pheasant over wild rice… ;)</p>
<p>and then declared “Let them eat cake?” :P</p>
<p>I think writing about fishing would be OK. For reasons I can’t really explain, I don’t think it has the same kind of stigma. Fly fishing, especially, has some cachet.</p>
<p>fishing has no blood and gore involved (usually). Fish are also fish. The reason that eating dog is so taboo is because dogs are considered domestic animals. Some people think deer are cute and adorable etc.</p>
<p>Fish are fish. They barely seem to notice what is going on in the world. </p>
<p>Just a theory?? Im a vegetarian, so I might be talking out my ass</p>
<p>Don’t write an essay about eating dogs, even if you come from a culture where that is normal.</p>
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<p>My H and S are on a fishing trip right now (even though I think what’s being caught are mostly weeds). You’re right – whether justified or not, fishing has an entirely different feel to it than hunting even though I suppose the end result is the same.</p>
<p>It raises an interesting question - what about other controversial topics, like fur? I could see it in the context of “my grandma’s fur coat reminds me of her” and riffing off that, but would it be wise to start an essay about wanting your own fur coat? I don’t know, just musing aloud here.</p>
<p>it depends on how you talk about it. This one depends heavily on whether you belong to PETA or PETA has ****ed you off beyond belief. It always seems to be one or the other</p>
<p>This is again just my gut reaction, but I think that fur would be somewhat less of a hot button than hunting, perhaps because it doesn’t have any kind of regional association, or association with working-class people. But it might be a negative for some adcoms. I would be hesitant about taxidermy, as well.</p>
<p>I mean the other way – there are plenty of northeast liberal types who object to the idea of someone owning a fur coat. Not that they advocate throwing paint on them, but that it’s as much of a turnoff as the idea of going deer-hunting may be.</p>
<p>With all due respect; I feel obligated to address how North-easterners are being stereotyped as a group here. I live in Northeastern Pa and can tell you that hunting is big here. My friends and almost everyone I know hunts. I literally asked my friend how to skin a deer and she could describe the process in minutia. My backyard is near a hunting range and i hear gunshots all the time; it’s actually pretty scary when I’m running in the forest. When some CC posters talk about people who don’t hunt; they are probably referring to people who live in NYC, Boston, Philly and other major cities and the like who aren’t near forests at all. But go to West Wayne Pa, near the Appalachian Mts. in New york, (even some people in Westchester,Ny) or places like Vermont, up state NJ and so on… you will find many fellow hunters. I’d like to end with the suggestion that maybe the aversion to hunting is not in fact a geographical issue but a class/ political affiliation issue. Why can’t we investigate that? Anyway, i just had to add in that little tidbit.
thanks.</p>
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I think it’s both, actually.</p>
<p>^^ not really. My cousin, dyed to the bone liberal, who lives on the Mainline and is a member of the Haute Culture (I don’t mean haute couture) Philadelphia society has taken up large animal hunting with a vengeance. He hunts on the very large properties of other like Philadelphians.</p>
<p>Having said that, agree that it’s not a good essay topic unless you are applying in Montana. Wait, forgot they don’t require essays :)</p>
<p>Hook him up with JHS and he can report back!</p>
<p>Everyone knows conservatism was a political joke made by a liberal that half of America didn’t get and took it seriously.</p>
<p>I definitely see a lot of stereotyping here against people who live in the Northeast. Maybe the problem isn’t what Northeasterners think of Southerners, but the giant chip certain people seem to have on their shoulders about their assumptions about the Northeast.</p>
<p>I agree Endicott. For me, LLBean and Orvis epitomize hunting culture in America, and both originate out of the Northeast. I’m still not convinced that the opinions on this thread reflect more than that of a couple of posters, as opposed to an accurate portrayal of the bias of Northeastern college adcoms.</p>
<p>Well, maybe this really is about the South. I’m from the South, and grew up around a lot of hunters, and I would bet that most of them never heard of Orvis. LLBean, they probably know, because there is a Bean store at the outlet mall. That fancy stuff certainly doesn’t epitomize the hunting culture in my home town.</p>
<p>Well and again, we never clarified that NE elite school adcoms were, themselves, all members of “NE liberal elite” families. </p>
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<p>Oh - I don’t think of LLBean as fancy! It’s sort of basic all-American Maine outdoorsy salt-of-the-earth, no real style, but durable, a good value – Lands End tried to co-opt a lot of that with a more midwestern feel. Hmmm. LLBean. Outdoorsy. Didn’t the OP express that his son was an outdoors-lovin’ kind of guy? Duck blinds, cross-country skiing, sailing, snowshoeing, canoeing … there’s a definite northeast prep contingent who loves those things.</p>
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<p>PG,
The Midwest (N.B., not the South) brought us Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops, two huge purveyors of hunting and outdoors gear that seem pretty well established in American hunting culture today. </p>
<p>Maybe its the Wal-Mart look that Northern liberals disdain about Southern hunters. ;)</p>