Girls and Guns

If I sucked you in on that post title, well that was exactly my point.

Not to mention author Laura Browder's point in compiling the photography exhibit and writing the book, both called "When Janey Comes Marching Home."

Browder spoke at the Library of Virginia's noon lecture today and it was a whole lot of girl talk, that is to say, talk about women in the military

It's apparently been a hot topic since at least the Revolutionary War, but with women soldiers always portrayed as sexual objects.

Trashy novels exploited the titillating story of women dressing as men and going into combat.

One Civil War novel even went so far as to portray a cross-dressing woman who was thought to have been a Union plant to destroy the gentile image of southern womanhood.

A WWII poster showed a busty WAC in a tank pointing the tank's gun at a hapless G.I. and asking, "So do we have a date tonight or not?"

Browder interviewed dozens of women who have been members of the military to get their stories about the experience.

The primary issue seems to have been motherhood versus deployment, with the guilt of abandoning a woman's unit every bit as strong (and sometimes stronger) as the guilt at abandoning her children stateside.

As one woman put it, "I'm a Marine first and a mother second."

Those are strong words coming from the (ahem) weaker sex.

One woman's story was particularly poignant.

Like all females, she was tested for pregnancy before being deployed and got a false negative.

After months overseas feeling sick, she finally discovered she was pregnant and was shipped home the next day.

A good friend replaced her in the unit, only to be killed by mortar.

The woman told Browder, "The baby saved my life."

I'm sorry now that I missed the photography exhibit at the Visual Arts Center (how did that happen?), but even seeing them projected as images today was moving.

The overriding theme that came through Browder's interviews was how this generation of women in combat feel like they are serving so that subsequent generations of women will have an easier time doing so.

They felt they were soldiers first and women second, even those who were strongly anti-war.

I applaud such bravery.

I'm still a woman before all else, although deeply impressed with those of my sex who have stepped up to serve.

No sexual innuendo necessary.