Today, two women will graduate from Ranger school for the first time ever. Earlier this week, the Navy announced plans to open BUD/S training to women. This has kicked off a whole new round of Facebook debates surrounding the issue of allowing females to serve as infantrymen in the US Military. The following isn’t directly about women serving in infantry, but about some hurdles that need to be addressed before we move forward. Mad Duo

Are you a Bitch or a Slut? You Decide. 

Cassandra Merrill

Every unit has them: that eighteen year old Chaplain’s Assistant who packs a battery-powered makeup mirror and three bottles of nail polish for a field exercise. But the majority of military females want to be taken seriously. We work exhausting hours, volunteer for details, lead training exercises, and carry our own load in an attempt to be seen as a valuable member of the team. We are dedicated assets who put in the effort so that our fellow soldiers know they can rely on us just the same as they could a male. Yet our reputations are not formed around our resolution and achievements; they’re extrapolated from how we react when our male counterparts hit on us.

Choose your own adventure: Are you a bitch or are you a slut?

If someone expresses sexual interest in you and you refuse him, congratulations!–you’re a bitch. If you sleep with him, you’re a slut. There’s been some talk about women serving in the infantry, but before we can have an impactful discussion on women serving in combat roles, we have to address this struggle that most military females face every day. Prior to accepting that those women can be Infantry, you have to acknowledge that females in the military are more than just flesh mattresses.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the same stale arguments persist in both discussions.

Females Aren’t Held to the Same Standards

You know who else would like to see the same standards for males and females across all levels of service? Females that aren’t shitbags. The single largest obstacle female soldiers face is that they’re expected to perform to lower physical fitness standards. If a 19 year old male and a 19 year old female both ran the 2 mile portion of their APFT at 15:54, the male would have just barely passed with 60 points. The female would receive a whopping 96 points. This disparity causes resentment between the ranks, especially when its time to submit packets to the promotion board. Don’t get me wrong, after a late night of heavy drinking followed by gorging at Godfather’s Pizza, it’s nice to have almost 19 minutes to breeze through the two mile run. But women are fully capable of knocking out an 8 minute mile. These lower standards are sexist, and perpetuate the bullshit that women cannot hack it. We don’t want 76% of the pay, and we certainly don’t want to be held to 63% of the standard.

They’re too Weak to Pull their Weight

Scientific studies have proven that men are almost always stronger than women. Reports show that males typically have 50% greater upper body strength and have greater overall muscle mass as a result of testosterone-induced muscular hypertrophy. They have tougher skin and stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments. The common talking point is that the strongest 10% of physically fit females are more frail than the weakest 10% of physically fit males. We are a sexually dimorphic species–No amount of “Girl Power” rhetoric will change that. Okay, so only a small percentage of women are able to bear a 100 lb combat load or fireman carry their battle buddy to safety. That said, of the total population of the United States, only 0.002% of American females join the military in the first place. As long as all applicants need to meet the same requirements, our modern concentrated force can be the best of both genders. My two cents: don’t be a misogynistic asshole, and let the standards sort it out.

Having a Woman Around Hurts Male Camaraderie

I’ll bet you don’t fart, burp, tell raunchy jokes, walk around naked, swap sex stories, or wrestle in front of the ladies in your life, especially if you’re trying to get your dick wet. The truth is, many males in the military do all of these things around females downrange, along with chewing with their mouths open, talking about the size, shape, and texture of their poop, urinating on walls, and cutting their toenails in the office. Many female soldiers partake in these vulgar activities as well, especially in a male dominated combat environment. We are not all the delicate little flowers you think we are. To argue that embedded females would force males to create a more polite environment is to ignore the actual co-ed experiences observed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, unit cohesion and the bond of brotherhood come from shared experiences, not the ability to fart in front of your friends, which suggests that after a few shitty missions female infantrymen can be just as integrated as males.

But Girl Parts are Icky…

Most men are under the impression that women need more hygiene than men, and that we couldn’t possibly go weeks without bathing in the field. Surveys show that four out of five women don’t shower every day, and over a third of women go three days or more without washing their body. A third of women don’t brush their teeth every day, and barely half take the time to wash their hands with soap after using the toilet. So think about that shit next time you meet up with a girl off Tinder for “coffee”. And what about yeast infections? Over 70% of women develop yeast infections regardless if they are in the field or at home. But while yeast infections can cause severe discomfort, they rarely cause serious health issues. In fact, if left untreated, most of these infections clear up on their own. A woman is not really a liability in the field due to the health of her hoohah.

What about Shark Week? We can’t have a PMSing monster dripping blood all over the place; it would compromise the mission! It may surprise you to learn that many females do not experience their cycles downrange due to strategic usage of their birth control. The bleeding that occurs while you take the 7 inactive pills of the pack isn’t necessary for health. Birth control pills give us more control over our menstrual cycle, which is a great benefit in a combat zone. A female can ensure that she does not experience her period until a time that she is back at the FOB and her personal hygiene would not become an issue. Added bonus: birth control also protects us from getting knocked up.

Bears Can Smell Them

You got me there. But until the enemy rides onto the battlefield atop up-armored grizzlies, I think we’re safe.

Well, shit.

Sexual Harassment and Assault

Few things are more disruptive in the military today than cases of sexual harassment and assault. The common belief is that if women are in infantry units more sexual assaults will occur; so in order to protect our fighting forces, we must remove the opportunity for grunts to be involved in sexual assault/harassment cases by not allowing them to be around women. This is a faulty premise. Sexual assault is not happening because of the surroundings, it is happening because of culturally accepted behavior.

Sexual assault is a crime that has no place in the United States Armed Forces. But somehow, it was considered acceptable behavior for a former XO to tell me, “if it were up to me, you’d be walking funny to work every morning, ifyaknowwhaddayemean”. It was perfectly normal for one of my coworkers to make lewd comments about my ass as he followed me up the stairs. It’s met with high fives when a male “accidentally” grabs a handful of my breasts during combatives. We’ve come to believe that giving female soldiers Surefire Defenders to protect themselves from the men they serve with is a satisfactory solution.

That is fucking bullshit.

Acceptance of this organizational culture is the root of the issue. It shouldn’t be swept aside with an utterance of “boys will be boys”. The military is taking impressionable young males and teaching them that they’re entitled to a sexual experience simply by showing interest. Stop it. Just fucking stop it. Conversely, it’s not uncommon to overhear females gossiping about a male proposition, and how she’s going to use the situation for personal gain. There are, admittedly, females who file claims of sexual harassment or assault if they don’t get a career boost, or sometimes simply because they just don’t like the guy. This counterculture is equally responsible in creating a hostile work environment. The constant threat of a sexual harassment incident ruining your career is equally as disruptive to a unit as a lascivious comment. Stop that shit too. Filing sexual harassment and assault claims should be reserved for severe or pervasive incidences.

If salacious comments from another soldier made you feel uncomfortable, inform them that you want the unwelcome behavior to stop. Bring a witness or mediator if you need to. If you make bawdy statements to another soldier and they tell you to knock it off, knock it off. Sexual harassment and assault is a serious issue in the military, but keeping females and males separated in an attempt to solve the problem instead of pushing them act responsibly merely sustains the behavior that allows it to thrive.

All of these issues need to be addressed before we can even begin to contemplate female infantrymen. Yes, they are difficult with few ‘easy buttons’ but they are all far from insurmountable. So stop getting ahead of yourselves.

–CM

Mad Duo, Breach-Bang& CLEAR!

Comms Plan

Primary: Subscribe to our newsletter here, get the RSS feed and support us on Patreon right here.

Alternate: Join us on Facebook here or check us out on Instagram here.

Contingency: Exercise your inner perv with us on Tumblr here, follow us on Twitter here or connect on Google + here.

Emergency: Activate firefly, deploy green (or brown) star cluster, get your wank sock out of your ruck and stand by ’til we come get you.

About the Author

Cassandra is an Iraqi War veteran with eight years of service under her belt. A conversational Arabic writer and former graphic designer, she spent her time in the Army as a propaganda *ahem* product producer in PSYOP. These days, this consummate nerd can be found making fun of people who only watched Game Of Thrones on TV instead of reading the books, taking copious notes during murderporn shows like “Snapped”, and winning hearts and minds in corporate America.