We’ve all seen war from Hollywood’s perspective — it’s the complex Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper.”
It’s a battle, both psychologically and physically for one’s life in an extremely harsh condition.
Combat movies are traditionally about men in the military who fight, because that’s what they do, right?
Men are men — they display brute force and have no weakness in the form of emotions.
In these movies, the women are strictly additive plot points.
They’re the childbearing mothers, the blond-bobbed daughters or the weeping elderly women who don’t have names.
As of Tuesday, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert has disbanded this gender stereotype.
There is no reason that women who can pass the six-month training regimen shouldn’t be able to participate in combat, he said.
This is a remarkable step forward, but not for the reasons you might think.
I feel today’s gender stratification is because of the fact that women are strictly prohibited from participating in activities that are “meant for men.”
I will never be able to become a Navy SEAL, simply because I don’t possess the desire to, nor do I think I am physically capable.
But yet, if I really set my mind to it, I could become one, which is a huge step for our society as a whole.
Yes, our bodies are made differently, but that’s not to say all girls are dainty dandelions with fragile thoughts and waning hearts.
What we fail to recognize is that in order to be a Navy SEAL, it’s not solely what you see on the outside — the uniform, the muscle, the sweat and the wounds.
It’s the sacrifice, the tears that are never cried, the strength it takes to become unwavering in every way possible.
‘This is so feminist,’ you may think, but I disagree.
It’s human.
This is an inherent right that should have been there all along, regardless of differing chromosomes or the cadence in one’s voice.
What really saddens me is this statement was made after Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver — the two consistently unnamed women in the news — made history today by graduating from the Army’s Ranger School.
Unfortunately, the future for Griest and Haver is still unknown.
As millennials, we should be outraged that women were only recently allowed to participate in combat roles — not that it’s been put into motion or anything — or apply to certain approved posts in the Army and Marine Corps.
Women shouldn’t have to prove a point to get these kinds of stagnant results.
There are woman out there who are just as strong, just as tough and just as likely to receive a position in the military as men, and there are also men just as weak, just as delicate, just as wary as many women who will never apply to become Navy SEALs in the first place. People are diverse, and setting restrictions over chromosomes and gender is an outdated process.
It’s time to seal the deal — I know, a terrible but necessary pun — and allow women to participate in all facets of the military.
jlkarl@indiana.edu
