Judy Rhodes loves her camouflage hunting outfit. It’s designed specifically for women, fits her figure well, and has her name embroidered on it.
And she accessorizes it well, with full makeup, a jeweled green belt buckle, six silver bracelets and large earrings with zebras on them. Plus, she styles her hair with curlers before heading out to hunt.
A gal’s gotta look good in the field, you know.
Underneath the groomed exterior is a heart that’s passionate about hunting. So much so that she founded an organization for women and girls who hunt, target shoot or want to protect themselves with a handgun.
“We’re women helping women,” says Rhodes, 54, a former interior designer who lives in Dallas.
The group is formally called Texas Women’s Shooting Sports. They call themselves the Divas for short.
Their motto: “If we can’t shoot it, we’ll buy it.”
Some have hunted since they were girls. Others came to the sport later in life. Together, they hunt, fish and have parties. The youngest member isn’t even a year old, while the oldest member is 94.
“We decided we weren’t going to lose two more generations of shooting in our country,” Rhodes says. “People aren’t taking their kids.”
“I’ve been hunting since I was 4 or 5,” she says. “I had a Red Ryder BB gun, and I’d hunt the kinds of things that kids did, squirrels and rats.”
She also works with manufacturers, urging them to design more gear for women. Men’s clothes don’t fit, while many guns are too large for most women. Her outfit is a prototype style that one company gave her.
“No one’s really catered to the women, even for the guns,” she says. “It’s very difficult to get hunting clothes to fit women, rather than getting men’s clothes and getting them altered.”
Since its founding in 1999, the group has grown to around 500 members in 30 states and 14 countries, as far away as Australia, she says.
“We have some women who don’t even shoot, but they love our parties,” Rhodes says.
One man was so impressed with the group that he offered $25,000 if they would let him join, she says. But no go. This club is for women only.
Although shooting is generally regarded as a male sport, women have been involved with firearms since their invention, says historian Larry Wilson of San Francisco, author of “Silk and Steel: Women at Arms” (Random House, $65).
“Everybody can be a shooter or be interested in the topic in one way or another,” he says. “Guns represent equality, security and freedom. It’s the great equalizer for women.
“If you think of the greatest shootist in world history, it’s Annie Oakley,” he says. “Some of the history has been lost because men have been writing the history.”
Diva Aleida Escobar-Reese, 39, a senior patient access representative at Dallas’ Children’s Medical Center, began hunting about 18 years ago, after her husband introduced her to it.
“It’s a family thing, really,” she says. “I like to be out there, even if I don’t shoot anything. I just like to be out with the animals. Everything we process, we eat.”
Still, on trips where she was the only woman, “I felt like I was the cook when I went with them,” she says.
She found out about the Divas about five years ago through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service, and soon became part of the group.
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The Divas hold group hunts, skeet- and target-shooting events, fishing trips and smaller events. They sponsored six-time gold medalist Cinda Brooks in the 2003 World Police and Fire games, and provide scholarships for 4-H members, among other scholarship and underwriting programs.
When they began appearing at hunting shows, people “just started coming out of the woodwork,” Rhodes says.
They also get a steady flow of new members through their Web site, www.txdiva.org.
For a recent bird-hunting trip, Divas Sheila Brenner and Suzanne Brayman meet at Rhodes’ Dallas home, which is heavily decorated in a hunting theme.
A stuffed baboon on its hind legs faces the front door, wearing a feathered headdress and sunglasses and holding a small plate of chocolates.
Behind it, the living room is covered with trophies–deer, elk, moose, pheasants, turkey, even a porcupine. Another room holds trophies of animals she and her family bagged in Africa–blue and black wildebeests, impala, kudu and more.
She pushes homemade soup, buffalo chili and peanut brittle on the guests as they prepare to set off to the Cullen Ranch, a 2,000-acre hunting mecca in Quinlan, Texas.
“I love to be outdoors,” says Brenner, 44, of Dallas, co-owner of a marketing firm. “I love to feel at one with the land.”
“It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t hunt how you feel about it,” says Brayman, 56, a home loan officer from Dallas. “They think you’re just out there killing, but it’s more than that.”
At the ranch, they’re joined by Pearl Silvey, 39, an accountant.
“It’s the camaraderie of everybody getting together and shooting,” Silvey says of the group. “I’ve made some friends, some lifetime friends.”
Guide Justin Knick, 24, takes them out into the field with three dogs, mixed-breed Nub, German short-haired pointer Dotty and Labrador retriever Soda. Their main goal is quail, but any game bird will do. “If it flies, it dies,” Knick says.
Nub and Dotty point when they detect a bird. Soda is supposed to flush it from the underbrush for the hunters to shoot, but several times he gets too enthusiastic and grabs the bird himself. In those cases, Knick takes the bird and breaks its neck.
They bag mostly quail and bobwhites, but Rhodes triumphantly holds up a pheasant she hit. “Pate for everybody!” she crows. She passes out tail feathers that the others stick into their purple “Diva” baseball caps.
After 2 1/2 hours of hunting, which yields 16 birds, Rhodes does a rendition of “Bye Bye Birdie,” while doing a little kick-step.
Then it’s back to the lodge for drinks and snacks. As Knick drives the group back, Silvey and Brayman discuss shoes and gloves–hardly a topic you would expect on an all-male hunt.
They had some laughs, missed very few shots, and had a good time. But deep down, it can be very serious. They take their friendships seriously, and talk of a connection with the land.
“You feel at one with God,” Rhodes says. “You feel all in one.”