Women Warriors

I just watched this piece on PBS about women in the military. I guess it was pretty educational, because I found that I still have hidden biases within me even though I thought I didn't. Like in a fantasy novel I am writing, I realized that even though I have women and girls fighting and I even have them transforming into giant dragon like creatures and going off to war, the main characters that I chose to go through the magical portal were both boys. Why? Maybe I should change that.


It also touched on Valerie Plame Wilson and women in the CIA and all that. And also how women have improved our military because female soldiers could talk to women in the middle east in rural areas. Something male soldiers simply could not do.. The reason why I was thinking about these two points was my mother traveled through the middle east. She hitch hiked in fact, down through Africa back up and through Iraq and was in Afghanistan (before the Taliban) and went through Nepal and Tibet and India and even went into Laos during the Vietnam war. She did this for fun or for travel, to see the world, that sort of thing. And she ran into quite a few hairy situation with people with guns and her quick thinking and luck and sometimes swimming skills (she dove off a cliff in Iraq, and later found that it would have been safer to jump, at someone else died there diving.) anyway I digress.

She mentioned that one time in some middle eastern country, she saw a helicopter fly where there were no helicopters usually and this guy lapels down dressed just like he was in the CIA (ie dressed for a prep school debate team or sit down dinner) and then walk off somewhere, supposedly incognito even though everyone just saw this happen. How could you not see it. My mother was there too wearing local clothes blending in. It wasn't that hard. A turban covers your face. Her skin became darker because of nearby copper mines.
When she wanted to go to a museum that women weren't allowed in she dressed as a man, and got a few looks, but nobody challenged her. WTF? A helicopter? Suit and tie? Who does that kind of stuff. Are you trying to look cool or get something done?

Let's not even look at stupidity. Let's just look at the money. How much did that helicopter ride cost? Who was he meeting with? How secret was the meeting supposed to be? Would there have been a more cost effective way? Probably.

Anyway the show was hi-lighting people's attitudes about women in the CIA during Bush Jr.'s administration. It seems like the men are arguing that having women improves the military. They listed other reasons besides the ones I was thinking about. But that little helicopter pimp my ride sort of nonsense does kind of seem like a boyish thing to do.
You look at all the famous women spies in history (there are a lot of them) and you don't see that kind of thing.
You look at a general like John Burgoyne (British General during the American Revolution.) and you see them demanding crazy expenses for Champagne and other ridiculousness.

There is the example of the Empress Dowager who didn't spend money on a Navy spent it on luxury instead. And usually this tends to be explained by "that 's how women are." But that's really just how she was as an individual. Was Mulan like that? No.

Anyway why would you deny half the population when you are really looking for the best people for the job, to get it done. It's not about fairness. It's just about being better or... haha.. "Being all that you can be." And how can you be all that you can be if you tie one hand behind your back. Because that's what that type of discrimination is doing, limiting yourself.

Some people think that because I am the stay at home dad that maybe I think differently than a traditional male. That I don't mind this or that. No. I am the same as a traditional male only of course I see common sense. If Grace makes more money of course I am the one to stay home. duh. But do you think I would take a hyphenated name or let my kids have their family name spelled one letter differently? No.
In a lot of ways I'm pretty close minded with many notions from the past governing my decision making. Perhaps something I should work on. But even I can see reason. So yeah power to the women, because ultimately it benefits everyone.