Tinder bans woman hunter for deer trophy photo
courtesy Nichole M.
Tinder bans woman hunter for deer trophy photo
courtesy Nichole M.

Reader Nichole M. writes:

I’m a native Vermonter and lifelong outdoorswoman. I grew up hunting, fishing, shooting competitive archery, the works. After seeing so many profiles of men holding fish or posing with deer on the popular dating app Tinder, I decided to do the same thing.

I harvested a nice nine-point buck during last year’s rifle season, the biggest buck I’ve ever shot in my 23 years of hunting. So…I uploaded a picture of myself posing with the deer to my Tinder profile.

A few weeks later on a trip to San Fransisco within hours of landing, I was notified that my Tinder account had been banned. Someone had reported my profile.

I contacted Tinder through their support email, only to be informed that my content violated their terms of service and community guidelines. They say they “take violationsā€¦.very seriouslyā€ but with no additional explanation provided.

Because they currently donā€™t have an appeals process, the ban was (and is) permanent. Do a few google searches for guys on Tinder with deer (or better, fish) and youā€™ll find plenty of male profiles there with similar photos.

courtesy Tinder

But the same person who reported my profile took it one step further. He found contact information for my employerā€™s website and sent a harassing email to our general sales account with screenshots of my profile, calling me ā€œa disasterā€ and ā€œclasslessā€.

Because I can no longer access the Tinder platform, I canā€™t report the individual for harassment. I again contacted Tinder support to ask about an alternative reporting process and received no response.

Thankfully, my employerā€™s reaction to the situation: Ā ā€œWe hired a chick who hunts. So what?ā€

courtesy Tinder

If bagging a trophy buck means being banned from Tinder, Iā€™ll take it ā€” and Iā€™ll wear it as a badge of honor while enjoying my venison and cleaning my hunting rifles. Enjoy your fish, gentlemen. I’m still proud of this buck.

100 COMMENTS

      • Iā€™m pretty sure that Tinderā€™s terms of service do not allow the posting a picture of a buck over seven points.

        Honestly, I imagine those guys posing with their deer are attracting more guys than gals. But who am I to judge.

        • I’m pretty sure Tinder isn’t a “dating app”. šŸ˜€ It is an app for hooking up and f^cking.

          I’m also not surprised that you got flagged when visiting San Fran. Probably had to do with a Bay Area soyboi flagging you. Maine, Montana, Alabama, or Utah, probably wouldn’t have happened.

    • Guilty without being able to face your accuser, due process, transparency, or recourse has become normalized in the internet world.

      • I don’t even know… does it cost money to join Tinder? Or is it another “free” social media platform where you, the user, are the product being sold?

        You want to play in my sandbox? Ok, but I get to make the rules, change the rules on a whim, and throw out anyone I don’t want in my sandbox for any reason, or no reason. If you don’t believe me, read the terms of service.

        The Tinder sandbox seems to have more than its share of cat feces. There are better places to play. And I have to believe the woods of Vermont are filled with men who would love to meet an attractive young woman who hunts.

    • Found the boomer.

      Are you also afraid of emails, the telephone, and that new fangled moving picture box in the living room?

      • Everything you say can and will be used against you.. i do like the lightning in a box though flip a switch and it’s day time all night time

      • What do you mean boomer? I’m a 27 year old pipeliner. Been all over since I was 18. I just pick chicks up in public…. Don’t need no internetzzzz

    • Find someone in real life. All this social media stuff is bullshit

      The whole point of Tinder is to find people with common interests to meet up with in real life.

      I think she should go after Tinder in the court of public opinion for their obviously sexist policies and forcing their gender normative views on her.

      • “I think she should go after Tinder in the court of public opinion for their obviously sexist policies and forcing their gender normative views on her.”
        BINGO. The only way to deal with Bolsheviks is to force them to play by their own politricks.

    • The point is it allows you to meet people in your area you may never bump into otherwise. No different than finding anything online. It maximizes your time, and gives you access to things you wouldnā€™t otherwise

  1. You should find out who this person is a sue them for defamation of character. There is a big problem because these a holes think that can ruin peoples lives without consequences.

    • Quit running to Mommy Government to solve your problems. What legal, moral, logical, or ethical principle simultaneously allows you to call such a person an A-hole, while prohibiting him from describing her as classless and a disaster? What, your personal opinion can beat up their personal opinion?

      Now, if he repeatedly called in or emailed, regardless of the content of his messages, then that would qualify as stalking.

      • So you are suggesting that instead of following the legal process she should just hire a PI, find out who he is and off him herself? Sweet.

        • Huh been meaning to reread Most Dangerous Game for a while now. But on the serious side doxxing is out of control especially with the hippy/sjw/ism activist types so making sure your social media does not link (no shared searchable descriptions or pictures) is a must in the Northeast.

      • Ah yes, the classic cuck philosophy. Roll over and whatever you do, do not fight back! Jesus, you’d have been perfect in 1940’s Germany.

    • Not that I’m a lawyer or anything (I actually am in real life, just not on the internet, and I do not represent YOU or anyone in this thread and I am not providing actual legal advice because in real life I’m actually a dog) but this would be a potential libel case since the guy sent a written email to her employer.

      However, a libel case would fail because she would have to prove that it was published, false, injurious, and exempt from any privilege.

      The email to her general sales account was not published.
      In addition, she suffered no damages as her boss ignored it and did not fire her.

    • The employer should know who it is, unless he wrote something with no name and return address. How can Tinder do that. Can stores turn away customers if they don’t like how they look or what T-shirt they wear? Clearly that’s discrimination.

  2. Social Networking is the arena of the ‘woke’.

    I abandoned all social networking a year ago and never looked back.

    I am, ever increasingly, convinced I made the correct choice.

    • Brother, I left all of it in 2012~. Iā€™m in my very early 30ā€™s, so Iā€™m not on the old guy list. My life is MUCH better without. Yeah, I have to go searching for news, but itā€™s fairly easy to find what I want.

      The best thing is never hearing, reading, or dealing with anyoneā€™s passive-aggressive whining because nobody called them or whatever cry baby BS. You also skip out on all of the mindless droning and complete stupidity that passes for ā€œviralā€.

      Hope you stay clean!

      • I never really got into the whole social media thing myself, and I have absolutely no regrets. My time is far better filled with other things. It’s kind of an irony, though, because I teach and research game design and UI/UX for a living in a computer science department. I like to tell people that I passed on social media not because I don’t understand it, but because I understand it far too well.

    • Same. I was never real big on Hatebook but I did enjoy posting pics of outdoors, whatever I was grilling, my dogs, grandkids, whatever. But it was all the crying and bitching that drove me away, that and hearing stuff like FB wants our medical records, FB sells our info, all that. Never twitted or insta’d or any of that, but a lot of people that work for me do and I use them when I need some word spread via socials.
      On another note, there’s some really nice looking bucks on there, and some that could have used a little more age on ’em.

      • A friend talked me into getting a Facebook account a few years ago and not long after that I learned that Facebook monitors (spies) on you even when you are not using it! That was enough for me. As a libertarian who values privacy I opted out. There’s a complicated process to do it, but it’s more than worth it.

  3. What a small person that was who did that. Nichole, you’re living life the right way, don’t ever let a pathetic person like that be a second of thought in your mind.

  4. I bet she could do better here on TTAG than that Tinder crap. Maybe they need to add a Personals tab at the top of the page…

  5. Social media is like a bus station toilet in a bad part of town. There isn’t enough disinfectant to ever get it cleaned up.

    • Only a reaction of deuterium and tritium will solve that mess. And followed up with a good dose of lewisite.

  6. Reason number 6,827 for never getting into the social media thing. F that snowflake for reporting you and F tinder for banning you. BTW, nice buck, keep hunting.

  7. I’m old enough to remember a time before social media when most everybody just ignored morons.

    • Me too. But then again, back in those days people had to work much harder at making someone’s life difficult. Now you just need to hit some buttons and kick off an email or two.

      • I also miss the days when we thought 10 cents per minute was a cheap long distance rate. Now I have to shout expletives and people in India a half dozen times a day. They still call though…

    • Nailed it Gov. A lot of people seem to have lost the ability to ignore. To take it a step farther, to reason. Emoting is a sorry substituteā€¦

    • Governor, we must be about the same age, because when I read your many posts I always think that you make a lot of sense.

  8. Women hunters tend to be treated worse than men hunters. Mostly because we live in a world that is repulsed by wholesome women (you don’t see many women hunters thottin’ it up on the ‘gram). Secondly, because there is this odd notion that because women are birth-givers and nurturers, that they should somehow be forbidden from killing another living creature, even for food.

    The anti-hunting crowd is strange. They tend to be leftists who generally eschew gender stereotypes and misogyny, but double down on it when it comes to women hunters. I’m surprised Nicole didn’t receive rape and death threats like many other women hunters.

    • “…because there is this odd notion that because women are birth-givers and nurturers, that they should somehow be forbidden from killing another living creature…”

      Except when they’re injected into video games and movies in totally inaccurate historical contexts to appease the social justice left. It’s like these people can’t even bother to do some research and realize that there are TONS of examples of women doing cool stuff all through history, all of whom are worthy of having their OWN stories told (some of them terrifically action-packed and awe-inspiring) instead of spewing made up Mary Sue garbage.

    • They tend to be leftists who generally eschew gender stereotypes and misogyny, but double down on it when it comes to women hunters whenever it’s convenient.

      FTFY.

    • ‘…this odd notion that because women are birth-givers and nurturers, that they should somehow be forbidden from killing another living creature, even for food.’

      Unless of course it’s their own babies, then it’s ‘who am I to tell a woman not to kill her own child?’

  9. Guilty of stepping off the plantation no doubt. After all women have to be democrats and democrats don’t hunt. Bonus evil points for use of a firearm.

    The punishment isn’t because you hunted. Its because you hunted as a woman and women should know better according to modern 5th, 6th or whatever wave feminism is currently rotting brains.

  10. It’s amazing how much time that person wasted to attempt to hurt the woman at her job. That’s the problem with these people is they can’t live their own lives and leave people alone. The world would be a much better place if people could just leave each other alone.

  11. If you feel that you have been discriminated against because you are a woman who posted a hunting photo as opposed to the way men who post hunting photos are treated, you may have a case. It shouldn’t be that hard for the Vermont Human Rights Commision to resolve, if this is the case. Download the form. Fill it out and send it in. It doesn’t cost you anything. They can refuse your emails, phone calls and hide behind the internet. If they don’t respond to the initial inquiry, they will get subpoenaed. They will settle rather than experience Discovery. That could really be rough on them.

  12. Get off Tinder, just on general principle. It’s the equivalent in tackiness to what Craigslist was back on the day. It’s infamous for casual sex. While it’s possible to find a quality individual there, it’s highly unlikely. Even if you do, you’ll have to fabricate a “How did you two meet?” story to avoid having to tell the embarrassing truth that is Tinder.

    Just do a google search for dating apps for hunters, if you’re set on social media.

    • Yeah, go to FarmersOnly.com, they have a better jingle.
      “You don’t have to be lonley/at FarmersOnly-Dot-Com.”

      What would the Tinder jingle be? to the same tune:
      “You can probably get laaaid/just go to Tinder-dot-com.”

    • That’s what I thought, Pretty much just a hook up site. She can do better and I wish her all the best. I wish my wife had interest in hunting. At least she doesn’t have a problem with me doing it. Of course she doesn’t mind when I cook it also.

  13. Good job girl… high fivešŸ–,,, I would advise the same thing other people here have suggested, find a good attorney & sue the pants off that dude that got in your business…

  14. San Francisco soy boys strike again. The problem has more to do with the general people you find in SF and not so much with “OMG a womenz hunter! Burn the witch!”

    • Exactly. She traveled to an area where leftists, who generally oppose such things, are a dime-a-dozen. They saw something they disagreed with, and threw a hissy fit. The same profile popping up in an area full of hunters wouldā€™ve found no such reaction.

      Iā€™ve had pics of me shooting firearms, or just wearing one removed for the same reason, and Iā€™m a guy. It has nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do with the wrong, whiny asshole seeing something they didnā€™t like.

      The main problem with anything on the internet is youā€™re dealing with a wider spread of people. Itā€™s inevitable SOMEONE wonā€™t like it, doesnā€™t matter what it is.

  15. Dat patriarchy. [Brought to you by the same fucktards who complain about “the patriarchy”. Copyright 2016. Your rights reserved unless we say so.]

  16. Sorry you got banned…glad I’m old. If my honey passes away I won’t bother with anyone else. Aren’t there outdoors/rural /farmer/hunter dating groups? 6 of my nieces and nephews found “love” and marriage in church environments. All very young…

    • “6 of my nieces and nephews found ā€œloveā€ and marriage in church environments. All very youngā€¦”

      There’s a Catholic joke in there somewhere. Damned if I can find it though.

    • I divorced last year after being separated for several years. My stress levels were greatly reduced and my health has improved. Although we have been amicable since separation, when we were married the situation was toxic will heated arguments coming out of nowhere.

      At least my son and I have a good relationship and he thinks we do more together than his friends do with their dads.

      At 50 in five months, I’m not sure I will get into another relationship. The last one cost me over $100,000 and I got off lightly.

  17. Only white men are allowed to hunt and post pictures.
    No white women allowed.

    So says the white Liberal people who run Tinder.

    • If there’s a gender agenda with Tinder, I suspect it is focused on propagating the myth of “toxic masculinity.” Women who enjoy hunting, because they enjoy hunting and not because as Hillary argues they’re just going along with whatever their husbands or boyfriends say, would tend to discredit the myth. How can masculinity, as represented by hunting, be at all toxic if women, too, not only engage in it, but find it enjoyable?

      • I have just volunteered to help with the local 4H rifle club. There are many young girls here who have no idea about what Tinder is complaining about. Amazing how white Liberals are telling women how they can or can not look for a husband. Actions between consenting adults. The White Liberal progressive socialists are and have always been in everyone’s bedroom. They need to get the hell out of everyone’s personal lives.

        The white Liberal has taken over the job of the Moral Majority. A group they once complained about.

  18. Tinder did her a favor, a women with thoughs looks and hobbies wouldn’t be single long where I’m from. Stay off all thoughs dating “crocks” sweety, keep doing what you enjoy doing and eventually you’ll run into someone with the same interests. That’s your guy….or girl, whatever.

  19. To imply this is sexism is false, and really an attempt to play victim. Just because there are guys with similar photos who havenā€™t had them removed or banned doesnā€™t mean youā€™re being targeted. It means they have been hit with the same treatment YET. Same would happen if they had their profiles reported.

    The program auto pulls photos from your Facebook profile unless you choose to upload certain ones. Iā€™ve had photos removed from mine involving firearms as well. Complete with a ā€œviolation of termsā€ warning from the company.

    Someone taking it a step father and attempting to sabotage your private life is another matter all together. Yes, itā€™s disgusting. Fortunately you have an employer that isnā€™t deranged as the person attacking you.

    Making an internet post about how youā€™re unfairly targeted due to your sex is disingenuous and not helping the problem.

  20. Iā€™m 23 and I love technology… and I absolutely DESPISE Tinder. I donā€™t have a problem with online dating or with casual sex, but Tinder is at the forefront of the absolute dumpster fire that is the modern dating scene; hookup culture has permeated it entirely, and poisoned so much of dating. A tiny bit of pushback is starting to grow but itā€™ll take years to even begin to undo the damage. Fvck Tinder, fvck the people who use it, and fvck hookup culture entirely

  21. Consider this the best thing to ever happen to you! Get off social media and get a real life. You will be much happier.

  22. What kind of sick, self-absorbed, holier than thou douchebag reports somebody for being different and having alternative interests? Why is America being infected with such fascitic dopes? (And worse, why is one major political party trading in the nasty currency of such diseased anti-American thinking?)

    If you have the money and time, make formal complaints and sue. And raise holy hell in the public opinion sphere… at worst, you’ll end up pitting these intolerant cannibals against one another. But, I say lawsuit. Make them pay, so they don’t do this to other good people.

    Be safe (real Mort)

  23. And to think, when I was single and looking (about 20 years ago), I couldn’t find a chick that hunted to save my life. Are there more of them out there nowadays or something?

  24. I was banned from 24-Hour Fitness for being a ‘racist’. I consider that an EXTREME Badge of Honor. Now my Texas monies don’t go to a Cuntifornia based company.

    Cudos to you Nicole. You are probably a racist too, like me, you just don’t know it yet. My ‘racism’ came as a complete surprise to me, too.

    • “I was banned from 24-Hour Fitness for being a ā€˜racistā€™.”

      This sounds like it’s going to be hilarious, disturbing or both. Please go on.

  25. He was jealous your buck was bigger than his buck. šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£ Some men can’t handle a strong woman.

  26. My plan is to wander around the woods alone until I meet my soul mate by happenstance.

    Hasn’t happened yet. Peaceful, though.

  27. Nichole, find a real male person who does not do social media. Or if you must do social media, post to an outdoors site. You don’t need a beta boi – you will intimidate it. True stories. Daughter is happily married. On one of her early dates with the really nice guy his father took them to a skeet range, rented shotguns, bought ammo for all, and they let it rip. Daughter’s best friend and bridesmaid has a photo like yours. Difference is the deer was taken when her boyfriend, now husband, took her on her first hunting trip. She bagged the deer. She also snagged him. Two happy couples and two happy sets of in-laws in this story. We hope the good choices continue for them all. You go ahead and make the same good choices for your life.

  28. Glad she went hunting and had success, would like to see the term “harvesting” dropped as it is incorrect.

  29. Nice buck.

    Soy = Estrogen.

    Obviously, at least some of the men in San Fran find themselves intimidated by strong women.

    John

  30. Join a local Meetup group, you’ll meet better peoe have a much better time of it than Tinder

  31. Tumbler banned all its adult artists and content, member count crashes while the user base moves to newgrounds and pillowfort.

    Tinder is banning its hunters… I wonder where this is going…

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