'Sex is key to a woman's experience in the US military'

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/28/wkayla28.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/08/28/ixportal.html

With her Buddhist and Celtic tattoos, a literature degree, drug-taking teenage years and penchant for punk music, Kayla Williams was never going to be your typical "grunt". The former United States Army sergeant, who finished a five-year stint in military intelligence in June, has applied to attend graduate school at Georgetown University in Washington to further her Arabic studies after being an army interpreter.

Yet between leaving the army and getting married last week to a fellow soldier who suffered brain injuries in Iraq, Williams, 28, has also found time to launch a book. Chick-lit meets battlefield memoir in Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the US Army, the title taken from a marching song.

Her prose is uncompromising. "Sex is the key to any woman soldier's experiences in the American military," the first line reads. "No one likes to acknowledge it, but there's a strange sexual allure to being a woman and a soldier." Elsewhere she writes: "I love my M4 , the smell of it, of cleaning fluid, of gunpowder: the smell of strength. Gun in your hands, and you're in a special place. I've come to look forward to that."

Over coffee last week she told The Sunday Telegraph that she hopes that her book, to be published in Britain in January, will be an alternative, accurate, depiction of a woman's army life, an antidote to the media glorification of Jessica Lynch and infamy of Lynndie England.

[rosesaylavee]

1. I heard her interviewed on NPR this week

by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Riveting to hear in her own words how she was asked to insult the prisoners sexually. She said something to the effect that she could see them more as fellow human beings and less as the enemy.

Terry Gross also asked her if she felt that she herself had been abused by what had been asked of her to do. She seemed confused by the question and said no. My guess in a few years she will understand just how deeply this has damaged her. So many wounded by this conflict.

[bobbieinok]

6. heard the same interview.....really interesting

[Spinzonner]

2. Oh, wonderful - Femismo

[Skittles]

3. as a female veteran I must say she is full of shit

she certainly isn't speaking of me

[teknomanzer]

4. Care to expound upon that...

I was in a combat arms unit in the army and had very little contact with female soldiers... I'm interested to get that perspective on the experience.

[Skittles]

8. see MADem's post below

I think the gal referred to in the original post has mental issues

[MADem]

5. I question her blanket statement and believe it is unfair to women

who are serving professionally and proudly. Sure, there are some women, like men, who are on the prowl, but most of the females I knew in service were very professional and focused on doing a good job at whatever they were assigned to accomplish.

Also, because of the times in my experience (pre-women's lib; women's lib; and post women's lib, with all of the sexual harassment and diversity lectures) I found that females were more likely to work harder to prove themselves. I think she does a disservice to her fellow servicemembers, but then, she is going for the shocking statement to sell her book...and we all know, sex sells.

[ismnotwasm]

7. I'm emailing this to my Army daughter

To see what she thinks. I know she has NO tolerance for sexual acting out for men or women in the military. I seriously doubt she finds her M4 sexy. She is a combat vet and accomplished soldier. (She does what I consider stupid shit like getting her Air assault wings and volunteering for checkpoint duty in the Afghanistan boonies)She can drive anything the army has to offer. I doubt she considers that sexy, probably considers it an accomplishment. She's Staff sargent who takes pride in being hard on her soldiers, but also lets them know she has their back at all times. She wants her soldiers to stay alive, and that takes discipline. She demands, and gets, respect. The last thing she wants to be considered is a "female" soldier. She want to be a soldier. She's told me a few stories about women like this, they tend to be damaged in some way. I don't mind sex, or sexiness in a soldier per se, I mind a woman or a man who connects sex with violence. I call bullshit.

[Hello_Kitty]

9. Sex wasn't any better for me in the military vs. out of it

So I dunno what she's getting at there :shrug:

[NMMNG]

10. She sounds a bit unbalanced to me

Mixing sex and violence, or getting a thrill from your weaponry is not a normal part of military life. There are people who join the military or the police force because they get a rise out of the arsenals and violence, but that is a personal issue within these specific individuals, not a characteristic of military/police personnel in general.