As I say, I’m mainly interested in the “high strangeness” aspects of BF encounters — from both male and female researchers. As we all know, not many of either gender want to go there much!

(And Kathy, I was just over at the Alliance site, after reading your post. I’ll be going back there to explore further.)

A great place to start would be Melissa Hovey’s blog that has a nice section on women researchers. Melissa and Teresa Hall are starting a new blog radio show called “Let’s Talk Bigfoot” that will additionally feature women researchers. Several organizations have a very strong representation of women, including the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers (which I am the chair and three other women are on the Board); the TBRC (a woman is on the board and I am on their Advisory Board); the Michigan Bigfoot group was co-founded by a woman; and the Ontario Sasquatch group was also co-founded by Pat Barker.

You are, of course, free to disagree about anything I say. And if you would like to list some of the women researchers you know, I would love to read about them.

Sincerely,
Lisa A. Shiel
Michigan Upper Peninsula Bigfoot Organization
Bigfoot Quest blog

Maybe I misunderstood, but statements such as this from Lisa’s blog: “More women are getting involved in Bigfoot research, though their efforts go mostly ignored—save for the work of Autumn Williams, who has appeared on the series “SciFi Investigates” and also had her own series for awhile” and from Regan’s “As Shiel points out, there are very few women in Bigfoot research. There’s herself, and Autumn Williams, and that’s about it” certainly give the impression that no other women are doing bigfoot research and getting credit for it. I understand that wasn’t your intent, but that is how it came across.

As for Lisa’s statement above of “The cold, hard fact is that women are not publicly visible in this field of research,” I again have to beg to differ. There are a LOT of women doing LOTS of visible work and I could list them if you would like to see the accomplishments.

I too am all for supporting fellow researchers, but not because they are of a certain gender. I’ll support any researchers that is doing good scientific research….regardless of race, gender, or anything else. No one should expect any less.

I never said such a thing, nor do I believe it. I listed a few names of the most prominent women researchers I could think of at the moment I wrote the piece. If you read my blog post carefully, you will realize that I was discussing publicly visible researchers whom the the average person might know about–i.e. women who have appeared on TV documentaries, written articles or books, or similar things.

The cold, hard fact is that women are not publicly visible in this field of research. I have high hopes that this will change in the near future.

And yes, I do know of Bobbi Short and Ms. Strain. I would hope that, rather than attacking one other, we women could support each other. My message about sexism is one of empowerment, not victimhood.

Sincerely,
Lisa A. Shiel
Michigan Upper Peninsula Bigfoot Organization
Bigfoot Quest blog

I’ve been propelled by a variety of events into Bigfoot study, and so, no, I don’t know everything and in fact, know very little. I’ve never said otherwise. (For the record, I do know of Bobbie Short, as well as others.)

However, my personal interest isn’t so much in field researchers — male or female — but those that take seriously the “high strangeness” elements within Bigfoot encounters. (That includes men too, by the way.)

Forgive me if I haven’t yet heard of you, but as I say, I am new to this area of Forteana; the main focus of my studies has been UFOs and Fortean studies in general.

I want to make it clear that I don’t believe all men are sexist, all women are purer than the driven snow, that there are only a few female Bigfoot researchers, or that I know everything. I’ve never said otherwise, and have never meant to give that impression.

As a female bigfoot researcher (who is also part native), I have never ever been mistreated by fellow researchers due to my gender. I have been questioned, challenged, fought with, slapped around, etc., but it certainly had nothing to do with being a woman.

I have indeed seen some issues related to ethic background (digger indian being one) but I have chalked that up more to a lack of knowledge than to racism.

In fact, I have seen more bias against my college degrees (and being a professional anthropologist) than anything else (same issue that I have seen about comment on Meldrum and Krantz…damn Ph.D.’s!!!).

And, if we were going to be honest here (just not politically correct) I take offense to Lisa Shiels, Linda Martin, and Regan Lee’s blogs that besides themselves and Autumn Williams, they are the only female bigfoot researchers they know. For crying out loud, what rock have you been living under??? If you don’t know who Bobbie Short, Diane Stocking, me, and a whole host of other women are, then I don’t know what else to say. Your world is as big as you want it to be…as well as your experiences.

People who are open to the reality of Bigfoot being real are, in my opinion, more likely to be tolerant of others. Except the pro-kill folks. Just kidding. Not.

Particularly when it comes to racist, classist or sexist crap; hold the person accountable. There’s a civil way to do it, but I think it’s neccessary and appropriate to do so.