Gender and The Military

Personally, I do not know anyone that has been part of the military. However, I do see mutual friends posting on social media about military soldiers and their duties. Also, two of my female friends who are 22 and 23 years old are already married to a male in the armed forces. Soldiers tend to marry young because there are significant financial benefits and social supports that come from marriage. These military wives have very difficult times when their husbands are overseas in combat. Military wives need substantial amounts of emotional support and a strong support system in order to stay calm and get through the times being without their significant other. On the other hand, I do not know any military husbands. I would assume that these men would need a strong support system as well, but I do believe that women struggle emotionally a little bit more than men do. Because of the female biological make up of hormones, we are more emotional and sensitive than men. 

Women have been involved in the US military since 1775, but more in the civilian roles of nursing, cooking, and sewing uniforms. However, it was not until 1948 that women were made a permanent part of the military. To this day, women have not yet been allowed to join the US Army's Special Operations community. This may be due to the "real physical differences between men and women, in terms of upper-body strength and the like" according to the article Sexuality, Gender, and The US Military. I believe that men and women soldiers should be allowed to fight in combat in whatever area that they please as long as they both pass the same physical training and mental health tests. These soldiers wear the same uniform, eat the same food, experience the same physical tasks no matter what their sex is. Therefore, I believe that men and women are treated equally in the military. They are stripped of their personal characteristics and preferences and resocialized into members of a cohesive unit.

The media and pop culture present male and female soldiers in opposing ways. The media always tends to portray females as sexual objects and males as tough, serious, and muscular men. The military ads are no different. Male soldiers are serious and saluting the country in ads while female soldiers are posing in a sexual way with make up and hair done. This is definitely not how the females are in service, but that is how the advertising community displays them. Moreover, the military ads show way more males than females because the social stereotype does not agree with having females acting in serious and combative ways.