Ufology -the "Feminine Touch"

 Back in 1995 I wrote an article entitled "UFO Investigation -the Feminine Touch" and there was sense behind it.

Ufology tends to be 96% male dominated. In UFO clubs the "little lady" was simply there to make tea and smile dutifully. Seriously, I went to my first meeting and found a good few women present. I thought that was great and started chatting to some of them only to find out that none of them were investigators. They were wives attending with their husbands or who simply wanted to hear what was going on. None of them apparently wanted to investigate UFO reports and one even told me; "Oh, I don't think the boys would put up with that!"

The problem was that female investigators were needed. A woman reports a UFO and she has to invite into her house one or two strange men and some women are trusting while others are evidently uneasy. I never presented a big concern since I grew up in a mostly female dominated environment -I even worked with women on a farm as a youngster. I've been told several times that I am relaxing to talk to which is okay, however, a female witness should at least be able to speak to another woman -I used to ask any female witness if they had a frind who could be present "for support".

And I rule out the "Oh, yes, I regularly receive messages from Caspian in Sector 7 of Venus" type who should never be pushed onto someone and there are male investigators who are just as bad but, you know...

The witness has to be relaxed and willing to chat with investigators and there may be things they want to mention but not in front of a man. 

I found that the biggest hurdle were the existing female investigators who did not want their positions as "the only girl in Ufology" that mattered status threatened. Do not underestimate how downright nasty those people can be.

I do not like the idea of investigators turning up with a male friend who's a hypnotist; that is not a situation that should be accepted.  I've known investigators take their disinterested wives along with them to avoid any problems. 

Sending a single investigator into certain situations can have unfortunate results. I always told people that they should work in pairs. For instance, an investigator who was going to work on the CE3K project with me in the 1970s was quite "nervy" at a meeting and then he told me that he had gone to talk to someone by himself. It seems that the room he found himself in was rather badly lit and grubby and he felt at unease as the person who had contacted the group told him that silicon based aliens were amongst us and until you got close you could not tell them from normal humans. At this point the person was gradually getting closer to the investigator...checking that he was not a "silicon alien" and what if he thought that he was?

The point is that from the moment the letter arrived with the group I was kept out of the loop and I was in charge (supposedly). Remember there were no cell phones, etc. I responded to all of this by saying: "And if he had decided you WERE a silicon alien and pulled a knife out what then?" I also pointed out that going alone to meet someone at night after reading what he had to say was "foolish."

Even at a UFO group meeting as everyone intermingled and chatted I kept my eye on one person who was "off". Eventually, this person approached me and said quietly: "I know you are not Terry Hooper. You are an alien android that replaced him. I'm watching you." 

UFO investigators can be called out day or night and find themselves in very shady areas and sometimes face-to-face with some very odd people. A two person team should be the norm and safety for witnesses and investigators be a better priority.