Micki in the Marines

...and be aware that things are in no way identical for men and women in the military, even if they're presented that way sometimes.

Just in terms of things like this: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013006J.shtml

And this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1802314,00.html

And this: http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2006/07/14/air-force-sr-master-sgt-convicted-sentenced-and-a-few-thoughts-about-justice/ (Whoooo, boy, talk about a perfect illustration of race and color inequities in the military.)

And this: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060610/NEWS01/606100320/1006

And this: http://rwor.org/a/firstvol/886/rape.htm

Only 10 years ago, drill instructors in the Marines led training runs with chants like, "One, two, three four. Every night we pray for war. Five, six, seven, eight. Rape. Kill. Mutilate."

Slogans like this are no longer official policy. But thousands of women in the U.S. military are being sexually harassed, abused and raped...In a recent Pentagon survey, half of the 47,000 female soldiers, sailors and fliers who responded said they were subjected in the last year to some form of sexual harassment or abuse, including rape.

Happen often. And to women, not men. The playing field, as it were, is nothing close to level. In any aspect of war, it is always, and has always been, skewed against women, women are always its prey or its pawns: wasn't ever a single war started by a woman, and we can rest assured there's reason for that besides the lack of power to do so. Watch your back, Micki: keep your eyes open. Take the best care of yourself and others you can.

(Too, too tired right now to touch on the ginormous issue of feminism and the military, but suffice it to say, it can be looked at SO many different ways. There are lots of arguments for why it is anything BUT feminist, there are some, albiet fewer, arguments for why it might be so.)

Mmh. Oh Micki. It is very sad to see you taking leave from this project. Many other mixed feelings apply as well.

For me, feminism and pacifism have always been heavily intertwined. More than I hate anything or anyone in the entire cosmos, I hate war. It is the most dispicable, disgusting, lowly, filthy, nauseating plague to live upon the earth. The war that is happening currently, as we see every day, is, as most wars are, immoral, tyrannical, greedy, and a source of oppression upon both the assaulting and the defending countries. By lending yourself to the US military, I feel that you have now become an accomplice to all of this violence, and I have to admit that I feel oddly betrayed that another woman, feminist, AGA blogger, would do such a thing. However, it is, of course, your life and your choice. It is always about choice. Unfortunately, very contrary to what this whole project is about, I feel that our individual choices regarding military force have now divided us.

I hope that no harm befalls you and that you continue to promote the rights, presence, and freedom of women. And please try to stay safe from some of the dangers that Heather pointed out.

~Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Girls and guys are rarely equal anywhere, but espeically not the military. I'm reading an article right now about the rapes in Iraq, of Iraqi women. I personally know I could never be part of an army that allows and some people believe, encourage that type of behavior to occur.

Micki, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you do stay safe from what Heather points out. I also hope you accomplish what you hope for, though you should know that you are as good as your father or anyone else for that matter anyway, and what are your plans when you return successful?

As for your 3 month absence, could you not send letters to one of us to post on the AGA? It would be nice to keep record of your thoughts, and keep us updated.

I'm with Amy- it would be great if we could hear from you from time to time.

Best of luck- you'll be in my thoughts.

Irmelin (and Heather), I'm interested in your statement feminism and pacifism are fundamentally intertwined to you. While I'm no fan of war, and the current conflicts between sovereign states and 'terrorists' drives me batty (especially the rhetoric and lack of historical accuracy and you know, respect for life... I could go on!) stating that feminism and pacifism are linked seems like really buying into the 'men make war, women nurture' dichotomy. A lot of us here are big advocates for women learning self-defense techniques along with other things that give women agency and power. I agree that Micki should be aware of her rights (or possible lack thereof) against sexual harassment in the military, but if it makes her feel like she's gained agency and power as a woman, is it our place to gainsay it, because feminism is about power?

Obviously, I'm coming from a place in which I'm at times in love with the idea of being a soldier (I applied once in high school, but was rejected on the basis of my health, in spite of scoring high than any recent applicants on the spatial and mental portions of the application) and hating it (I dated an infantryman for a time, who has no conceptions of respect for women or minorities, and after seeing the people he works with, understand why.) The Canadian military isn't really fluffy bunnies either; I know beaucoup bad things happen there too. But as a female with a chronic pain issue, I really wanted to bust my ass, and prove to myself that I could walk X miles every day, and carry 50 lbs of gear. I did a charity stairclimb carrying a sack of phone books once just to see if I could. For me, joining the military would have been an exercise in pushing my body to the limit and appreciating what I could do. If offered the chance to join again, I probably wouldn't take it after my experiences with my ex but I do think that having the choice is important, and that women like Micki who take pride in their job can be a wave of change for the military.

I can talk about it a little, though it might be best to talk about this more in depth in the forums? I say that only because while personally, yes, I'm pretty profoundly anti-military, and for me, I'm pretty traditional in my feminism per being of the mind that no, to me, it's counter to feminism (because most feminist theory isn't about giving women patriarchal power -- especially since that's oxymoronic -- it's about empowering women as a class with their OWN power, working to change a system that is patriarchal to one which is egalitarian), BUT: I want to support Micki here, and I also want to make sure I do what I can to leave room for all of us to work together and support each other even when our ideas and ideals vary.

One thing that leapt out at me from what you said, Celine, is the "defense" part of self-defense. There's a difference between defense and offense, and waging war is offense. It is not self-defense, especially at this point in time when a national "enemy" one year is the same guy/nation who a couple years before was given billions of dollars and weapons because he scratched the right back then, blah blah blah. At best, it's the self-defense of the big boys in power, using soldiers and citizens to fight in their stead.

I really appreciate something written at the end of one of the links I included up there, and I think it sums up the big rift between feminism, the miltary and war-maing very nicely, even for people who aren't pacifistic: a revolutionary armed force with the goal of doing away with the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist/imperialist system would not tolerate such abuse of women within its ranks. One of its main sources of strength would be unleashing the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution--as military leaders and soldiers. Not only would women never be treated as the property of men--or as a prize of war--but there would be a determined struggle against any manifestation of the oppression of women within the ranks. The abuse of women among the masses or within the ranks of such an army would be punished with extreme severity. And perpetrators at whatever level--whether officers or rank-and-file soldiers--would be made examples of, with the maximum penalty for rape or similar sexual assault.

This can also be applied to the fact that rape has always been and remains a tool of war. That terrorizing women and children is one of the oldest tactics of war that there is. Women are not going to change the military: it isn't going to happen. At best, women might be able to make it a LITTLE less violent, a little less sexist. But it still is what it is: the military isn't used to make peace: it's used to either wage war, battles amongst men, for power that is nearly always if not always the power to oppress other nations, groups and classes, or, at best, to try and use the same tactics which terrorize people to protect them from terrorisms from someone else. And nearly always, again, these are battles between one or two men for power, in power, who use their citizens, and sacrifice civilians, to fight their battles.

I think we can have exercises in pushing our minds and bodies in the service of peacemaking just as much as anything else. Honestly, I think the idea that women could radically change the military...? How? How much change can be done without making the institution something else entirely, and how could a minority class, for whom it is vital remain so per that system (either by being prey to it, or by serving its needs while it rapes and renders more women and girls into poverty, etc.) do that?

If someone has a strip mall raking in the big bucks, that is the busiest one in town, and I want it to instead be a wildlife preserve, not only will I need to have the resources and power to do so, more than those who own it and most who use it, I'd also need most of those who wanted the strip mall to also want the preserve instead. Something like this is, so far as I can tell, a macrocosm of what we're looking at with women and the military.

P.S. Per this: "seems like really buying into the 'men make war, women nurture' dichotomy..."

That's not what's going on. But it's a problem to even set things up that way, because historically men DO make war. Only men HAVE made wars. That doesn't mean that, conversely, women mend the booboos, even though that's exactly how it's worked out: we often help heal MEN's wounds, historically, while our own, from the same wars, are still bleeding, while we our or mothers or dughters are still bleeding from rape during war, while our bodies are broken, etc.

That dichotomy, really is more of an argument based in a patriarchal system than anything else. To be pacifist, to wage peace, is not about nurturing/mothering/band-aiding. It's about diplomacy, negotiation, nonviolent resistance, not serving who is in power because of the whole power-over game, community, et al.

Micki, my thoughts go out to you. I say this as someone who's family's been military for hundreds of years: this is a difficult time for anyone to be joining the military. You are about to sacrifice so much (your personal liberties or health being really some of the smaller things) and I hope you find all that you give up in order to be a good soldier worth it.

KK

Contre tout le monde, je me defendrai...je suis le dernier homme, je le resterai jusqu'au bout! Je ne capitule pas!
- Ionesco, Le Rhinoceros

I agree with Heather, although I don't want to get in a debate on someone else's post, I feel the need to comment. Feminism and pacifism don't have to be linked. I believe you can be a feminism and kick butt, I believe you can be a feminist and be a gun owner. However, when we look at modern warfair, its not man against man, or woman against woman. Its civilized societies, fighting much more primitive enemies with technology. Not only are the women in the societies that we fight completely defenseless because in many cases they were trained to be, they are also defenseless because we have much better technology. In modern warfair, women are often the majority of civilian casualties. Also, whether someone is male or female, to feel power from holding a gun in one's hand or killing others, to me is a shallow and pitiful form of power.

I think this is just a matter of having different ideas about what feminism is. Neither one is right nor wrong, except to the individual.

~Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

I wish you the best of luck, Micki. My father is an ex-marine, and although he is far from a military man now, I still think of the Marines as being the best nd baddest of our armed forces.

I do not agree with the way the world handles it arguements, but I am proud of you for going for it. I hope to hear about your boot camp experince when you get a chance to return. Be safe, and good luck.

"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world." —Virginia Woolf

Like any other progressive liberal, I don't want our country involved in warfare and especially not in preemptive warfare. But I don't think it's useful to tsk-tsk those who choose to enter the military or to call Micki "an accomplice to all this violence." The war is not HER fault; being in the military is her job. Many people in the military are in Iraq right now, indubiously killing innocent people, raping women, and torturing prisoners, which is horrible. My point is that other military personnel are in relatively benign peacekeeping situations in South Korea or in the Balkans or in Germany. Merely being in the military does not make someone a bad person, doing despicable things.

The military has many problems with it, which have been enumerated above, but here's hoping Micki, a feminist, can change it a little bit. I tend to think that change is better made from the inside out.

Men in my family have been in the military for several generations, though I think it's telling that my father's experience in the Navy led him to become a pacifist. I hope you're able to use this time to grow, push yourself, and re-examine a lot of what you think and know (not saying there's anything wrong with what you think and know, just saying that ALL of us need to do these things, and experiences like joining the military give you a great chance to do that).

Stay safe, stay strong, and let us know how you're doing when you can!