Sunday, December 7, 2008

Funny, I was thinking it was the worst insult ever . . .

Comment culled from another blog:

"Jane, I once spent 11 days in an unairconditioned quonset hut in 100 degree weather facilitating strategic planning with 1 General, 10 Colonels, 2 Majors, 1 Captain and one Sargent Major. All men. Every afternoon, we played golf. At the end of the first week, one of them looked at me and said, you know, I forget you are a gal because you are like one of the guys.
I never had a better compliment. :o)"

(name changed to protect the "innocent", comment otherwise unaltered)

9 comments:

Beth Impson said...

We've come a long way, baby . . .

Anonymous said...

> "I forget you are a gal..."

Stupid general, colonels, majors, captain and sergeant major. [I decided to be polite and tone down my language, there.] Forgetfulness is greatly facilitated by dressing them just like the men.

Reminds me of the officer some years back who wouldn't live in an isolated missle silo alone with a female officer, sleeping in the same bed on shifts, and got in big trouble for it. He had more sense than these 15 so-called 'men.'

Imagine the reverse happening: "I forget you are a guy because you are like one of the girls," and the man thinking that was the greatest compliment! Gross.

I wonder what the point was about the "11 days in an unairconditioned quonset hut in 100 degree weather." Were they stripped down to their skivvy shirts, or what? Does she have a thing for sweaty men?

Whatever, the whole scene is perverse. Her thinking is warped, which is shown by her being so boastful about this, and keeping such an exact count of how many males of each rank she was in such close quarters with.

With all the promiscuity in the gender-neutral military, I really don't think the guys are forgetting they're gals.

"Funny, I was thinking it was the worst insult ever . . ."

GOOD!!

Anonymous said...

> "I never had a better compliment."

If being treated like one of the guys is such a fantastic compliment, that should save the guys a bunch of trouble. Guys don't like getting flowers, for example.

Anonymous said...

Why do the girls get all the fun?

Where can a guy go to spend 11 days in a sweaty hothouse with 15 girls?

Where's the equality they're always so concerned about?

Debbie said...

Michael wrote: "Where can a guy go to spend 11 days in a sweaty hothouse with 15 girls?"

Michael wrote: "Whatever, the whole scene is perverse"

The comment Kamilla culled refers to a stragtic planning meeting. Nothing perverse about that particiular scene but, Michael's statement does takes it down that path.

Anonymous said...

DL-

What I meant by 'perverse' was that the woman quoted thought it was so great to be in this 100-degree quonset hut for 11 days with 15 men and considered one of the guys.

[I still wonder what the high temperature or the type of structure had to do with being one of the guys. If you have any idea why those details were considered so significant, please let me know.]

I was in the Marine Corps for 9 years. I've lived in a tent in the winter in Korea, and I've lived in tents out in the California desert in summer [Twenty Nine Palms], and there weren't any female 'guys' in sight. That was the olden days, before the modern perverse military where men and women live in cramped quarters together, whether in missle silos, aboard ship, etc.

Anonymous said...

Another thing, DL -- I think it is 'perverse' for girls and women to be involved in warfare in the first place.

The Bible says it is an abomination for a woman to wear that which pertains to a man. Many claim that to be 'just' refering to soldierly garb/weaponry, not male clothing in general.

An abomination is a stronger term than perverse, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

While we are on the subject, I think it is perverted to have females training whole platoons of males, while males train whole platoons of females at boot camp.

Both my sons are in the Air Force. My younger son [6' 5"] had a real short female Military Training Instructor in charge of this whole flight of guys for six weeks. I also saw flights of girls being trained by men. Crazy.

Kamilla said...

On the contrary, DL. I think it is remarkably perverse to put a woman in such a situation and then for her to consider it a compliment that she seems just "one of the guys".