What makes KMD special to you? Weapons and strength as beautiful

What makes KMD special to you? Weapons and strength as beautiful

I'm running a writing competition at the moment - just a line, paragraph, however much you want, on what makes KMD special for you.

Here's Vanya's answer (not their real name):

 

"Society celebrates frailness, softness, lithe beauty further expressed in soft curls and powdered cheeks. Yet, never have I seen myself reflected in a beauty standard that made women into china dolls or Barbie dolls or walking memories of a time when women were to be seen but not heard.

I was raised in a hunting family where I was reloading gun cartridges at age 11. We hunted for food as we were poor and a deer tag for $10 plus labour yielded 40 lbs of meat. I received my first gun from my father at age 14: a traditional 22 caliber rifle perfect for shooting cans and gophers and targets. At age 16, I received my first hunting rifle: the powerful 270 that will bring down deer, elk, and the occasional moose. My Dad had the stock custom tooled to fit my short arms with a thick recoil pad on the back for comfort. At age 16 I was not only hunting, I was also skinning my own deer to the positive beaming of my father and the shock of the other male hunters. My father himself tooled my knife handle out of bone from the first moose I ever took. These were the tools of my trade.

For me, beauty was intrinsically entwined in strength and an ability to take care of yourself and your family. But I never saw my beauty reflected in society. That is, until, I saw some adverts from Kiss Me Deadly Lingerie. Two pictures caught my eye: one of a smoking hot dame in black with a carving knife and another with a pistol. That was me. There I was being portrayed as something hot and smouldering and beautiful and desirable with the tools of my trade! The tools I was given by my father. And I knew then that Kiss Me Deadly Lingerie was something special because they reached out and embraced, nay, celebrated my power as a woman. I could be beautiful and deadly all at the same time. Thank you. <3"