G.I. Jane-A Hollywood Myth or Contemporary Reality

In America's 11 major wars women have served in such capacities as nurses and doctors to pilots of fighter-jet bombers and Apache helicopters and were among the crew of aircraft carriers and warships. In fact, except for front-line infantry units designed specifically for hand-to-hand combat, women may serve in any area of the military and have done an exceptional job in many of these positions. However, the leaders of the feminist movement believe that the right to fight on the front-line should belong to both men

During Operation Desert Storm, flight surgeon, Army Col. Rhonda Cornum was captured by Iraqi forces, and held for 8 days before her release. According to an ABC News.com article, "she later testified before a presidential commission on women in the military that the Iraqi's had sexually molested her.” In addition, what about the male POWs; from birth he is conditioned to protect the female, and men of honor will do just that. Forcing him to witness atrocities against his female comrades will break him. In an Electronic Daily Telegraph article, writer James Clark quotes British Defense Minister Baroness Symons as saying "military men should have instincts to protect female colleagues drilled out of them. It is a question of training men so that in combat they will not protect someone else before doing their duty just on the basis of their gender.” However, what kind of society will we evolve into if men are no longer taught to protect their women?

In the PBS National Desk documentary "Politics and Warriors: Women in the Military" new recruits were filmed during basic training. The male recruits are seen easily scaling walls, hurdling barriers, and pulling themselves up onto high platforms while the females struggled with the same tasks and in many cases could not accomplish them without some assistance. Also shown were the recruits performing an exercise of carrying and manipulating a stretcher containing a dummy, which weighed the same as the average man, over a 5-foot wall. The male recruits had no problem finishing the task successfully and in a timely manner while female recruits had greater difficulty and in fact wasted valuable time and energy talking through the steps of a task that should only require basic instincts. The female recruits even lacked the upper body strength to throw a hand grenade far enough to keep them and others in their platoon from getting hurt.

Psychologically, the presence of a female on the battlefield draws the attention to her. The efforts of Pfc Jessica Lynch and Spc

Some topics in this essay:
Gender Study, Fire Hollywood, Gulf War, Women Military, Clair Huxtables, Lt Hultgreen, Ellen Donnelly, ABC Newscom, Shoshanna Johnson, Force Academy, basic training, hand-to-hand combat, women combat, hand-to-hand combat women, protect female, male recruits, feminist movement, combat women, women serve, failure rate, female recruits,