Very professional and very conscious of her image when you meet her in a chic Parisian hotel, Johanna Clermont stages her endless blond hair, her pretty face on social networks to the delight of brands. But no cosmetics. This 23-year-old influencer tests guns and hunting knives. “It's still cooler to receive firearms than lipstick,” laughs the huntress. It is the female hunter used by her peers, in reference to the goddess Diana.
For three years, she has been posing with sniper rifles or in front of the body of an antelope and she now has more than 300,000 subscribers. As of Tuesday, the young woman will be displayed in 4 x 3 in the Paris metro to promote "zone 300", the Netflix of the hunt. It will also be put up in Nice, Toulouse, Marseille, Lille, Rennes ...
“Johanna is the ideal face for hunters”, points out Pierre Rigaux, naturalist and anti-hunting. "Young and woman very far from the reality of the hunter" 98% male. Even in her community, the atypical profile of the young woman goes badly: “I have always supported her in her initiatives. In a world of men, where social networks are little used, the early days were a bit harsh, ”slips Thierry Coste, the political advisor of the National Federation of Hunters.
Martine Pion, national president of the female hunting association (ACF), does not appreciate the character so much: “We don't have the same way of seeing things, being a muse and remaining independent seems difficult to me. "
A wild boar for the first catch
This Perpignan, well in her generation, fell into the hunt inadvertently during her high school years. The young woman grew up in Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales) a small town where she attended the same school as the daughter of the former mayor and new Prime Minister, Jean Castex. “Like everyone else, I imagined the hunters as in the sketch of the Unknowns, old, fat, alcoholics, many from the countryside. I discovered something quite different, ”she says. At the time, she accompanied her gang of friends to a beat to see. From this first outing, she catches the virus.
Then everything is linked, she publishes the photo of her first take, a wild boar, on Facebook, the photo goes around the sites and the specialized press. She then catches the eye of the rifle brand Browning who offers to draw from its catalog of weapons of 3000-4000 euros and teaches him the use of social networks. “It was a little Christmas every day,” she enthuses. We will not know her income but she ensures a comfortable living.
Threatened in her college
Johanna is far from being an ordinary huntress, she tracks game five days a week; takes part in a trip to satisfy his passion about once a month. This year, if it hadn't been for the Covid, she should have traveled to New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Canada, the Balearic Islands in Turkey, etc. for his job. Partly financed by specialized travel agencies or equipment brands.
His “job” not really politically correct earned him a few cold sweats. Not just in the woods. Anti-hunting men threatened her in the amphitheater in the Perpignan university where she is studying law. “Doing ch… the world is my second passion,” she laughs bravado.
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But for safety, she does not give her real name, Clermont is a nickname. With the poster campaign, isn't Johanna, who will be even more visible, afraid of being targeted again? "If there is no negative fallout it is because it did not work," she replies.