Monday, February 15, 2010
Women in the Military
Over the weekend i saw the movie Valentines Day. There was this one scene where this women played by Julia Roberts was on the plane heading home and she was in her army uniform. There was this male sitting next to her being friendly and asking questions, he asked how long she was going home for and she said until the next day. The man was in total shock and said that the man she is going to see was a lucky guy. At the end of the movie the man she was going to see was her son. This made me think that women's roles have changed a lot in the military. They are now not only allowed to serve but they are getting deployed and in some cases engaging in combat. I came across an article in the New York times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/us/17women.html its about how women's roles have changed in the military and how more people are accepting them. Just because there is more acceptance for military women does not mean they don't face problems like sexual harassment and assault. Women are encourage to take extra precautions like not going around base or out alone and to carry a weapon for safety. Put that aside they are doing what the men are doing in the military. I'm sure a lot of us heard about Jessica D. Lynch how she was capture and held captive until rescued by USA forces. Her and other soldiers were involved in the mission pushing from Kuwait to Baghdad, they were involved in combat. One women died in the process. Women are gaining more respect in the military and more opportunities are opening up to them as time passes, 50 years ago women would have never thought that they would one day be allowed to join the military and work along the side of men in fighting for the freedom of our country.
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I think this is a really good post. I agree that while it is good that there is more acceptance of women in the military, there is still some work to be done. They do face problems like sexual harassment, which I imagine is a deterrent for some women to join. Something that I've noticed a couple of times before was how these women are portrayed in recruiting commercials, particularly in the ones that are shown in the previews before movies in theaters. I think the one I'm thinking of is for the Army National Guard. Women are represented in the advertisement, but I thought it was interesting how they showed one woman as returning a child to a mother during a fire (or a flood, I don't really remember). All I could think was how weird it was that even though the ad is showing women in a career typically dominated by men, instead of showing them fighting a forest fire or rappelling down a mountain like they did the men, they had to show her performing a "motherly" role and attending to a child.
ReplyDeleteKat,
ReplyDeleteI saw the movie,and I have to admit, I cried during the scene when she was reunited with her son. What can I say, chick flicks make me mushy. It was interesting how they completely had the audience guessing!
I think it's cool that you talked about this, because I have a friend who's mom is serving, and it's really empowering to hear some of the great things she's accomplishing. I've often wondered how it would be, as a woman, serving, with such threats as sexual harassment and assault, on top of the taxing job of being in the armed forces.I do think things are improving, but I think, in general, women still have some ways to go into getting complete respect from others.
I also saw this movie over the weekend and I loved it! I thought her character was really touching and I definitely didn't expect the ending! I appreciated the fact that they chose a woman to play the role of a soldier because it really isn't something that we get to see that often. I think that this movie actually challenged a lot of the gender stereotypes that we have. Specifically the main couple (Ashton and Jessica) kind of took on reverse roles. Ashton was the gushy, emotional florist while Jessica was the commitment-phobic, career driven one.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the issue of women in the military though.. I obviously think it is great to see just how far women have advanced in the military but they definitely face a lot of obstacles. My boyfriend just recently got out of the Marine Corps and the general mentality among him and his friends was that female marines were whores.. period. When my little brother went to training for the Army Reserve he also gained that opinion almost immediately. I think it is safe to speculate that men make these assumptions because they may feel a little threatened. It really makes me wonder what will happen if the "don't ask don't tell" rules ever do change..