Very well written freewrites. Kudos.
I hope, however, you'll forgive a short commentary about the subject matter. As a combat veteran of an elite military force, I find the "ideological basis" of the freewrites ... ridiculous.
Physically, women CANNOT do the same things as men and military service is not about providing someone the opportunity to fulfill their childhood dreams.
If a woman can haul the base plate of a 81mm mortar ... and her backpack ... and her assault rifle ... in full combat gear ... across several miles of broken terrain ... at a full run ... under the mid-day sun in the middle of a desert ... then fair enough, 82nd Airborne it is.
But study after study demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of women cannot. Indeed, the majority of men can't either. The men that can't ... don't get in, and neither should the women. Life's full of disappointments.
Ignoring biological realities, and lowering the bar so that women can get over it, means endangering everyone in the unit ... and, inevitably, means that someone (the men) would have to carry a woman's gear so as to compensate for her lesser physique. Dismissing this "reality" is pure ideology ... belief in an ideal in spite of obvious contradictory facts.
If society has become so ideologically rabid that it insists on providing women a chance to serve in combat (BTW, parachutists generally have to be the most physically fit of all infantrymen), then I have a solution: The formation of "all women" battalions.
Hence, when one woman cannot handle the crippling physical demands, then it will be another woman who will have to compensate ... and/or the entire female unit who will have to pay the price.
Send such female-only battalions into the same combat zones, with the same missions, as all-male battalions. And then we shall see who's right and who's wrong: The green-haired Gender Studies professors sipping their Starbuck's lattes as they parade around with placards ... or guys like me who have already done that which is being contemplated doing.
Imagine the arrogance of my thinking that my opinion is worth more than theirs. It must be the misogyny ... or, perhaps, it's my objection to "female hygiene."
Or, I suppose, it could be the scars that cover my body and the memories that come with them.
In any event, my daughter WILL NOT be a part of such a social experiment ... because I have the ability to temper my ideals with critical thinking and, thankfully, so does she.
Quill
oh, gee... Wow, thank you for your service! I had no idea I was in the company of such greatness. I am also honored to chat with one of the critics of my 5 minute freewriting story. (sarcastic)...
I was not in an "elite" unit or even the 82nd Airborne (82nd was the first unit that popped into my head at the moment). I did, however, serve 12 years active duty (4 years USMC and 8 years US Army) in a combat arms capacity (12B) with 3 combat tours (2 in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan). If you care to hear more of my personal qualifications to write a 5 minute story about a female private talking with a a senior NCO while on staff duty I will be glad to interact. I will not bore you with anymore about me....
I do wish to talk more to you about why you are so triggered about my story though. While I would agree with you that women are not as capable as men are, generally, I did not know my story would take this turn until the second prompt of the challenge. I was sort of railroaded into creating a female character. I would LOVE to read some of your writings as it would teach me more about you!
I am glad to hear you have a daughter who will not be enlisting in the US Military as she has "critical thinking skills". I would hope that my daughter, also, will not follow in her father's footsteps. I cannot say overtly that my daughter "WILL NOT" (your phrasing) join the military in any capacity as when she is old enough to make her own choices I hope to have instilled into her "the ability to temper ideals with critical thinking". (again, your phrasing)
Again, thank-you for the thoughtful response to my silly little story and I look forward to reading from you in the future.
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Quill - this is and was a fiction exercise and @superdavey was working with three prompts thrown at him. I think you went a bit overboard treating it as an opinion piece instead of what it was and is - a work of fiction that required the writer to fit in three random prompts to create a story.
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@mariannewest,
You're right, I did not understand that. And hence:
Quill
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No worries - I am just a bit protective of the freewriters :)
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@superdavey
I must assume my degree of responsibility. I saw an awesome write by a vet and sent it to @quillfire, as he is most interested in supporting creative writing, particularly by vets. He is truly. What I failed to factor in was that he and I were engaged in a debate regarding gender just last week. It should have occurred to me, I apologise to you both. I unintentionally set him up, gender to me is not relevant, I saw military theme free write and honestly didn't associate our very recent polar views. As a civilian with no link to the military, (unless you count my uncles compulsory service in South Africa prior to immigrating to Australia), I don't think I have an informed position to comment from. I do think I would have fared better than my uncle though. I could kick every boys ass in an arm wrestle at school, cross country and in the pool. My brother who was a year younger didn't stand a chance against me. My mother wasn't required to do military service (she would have smashed it!) but her unathletic brother was put through hell.
Quill and I don't know each other outside of steemit, we have come to know each other here. I do believe one of our early conversations involved a presumption on his part, to which I bit back with a sting addressing his inference with zero ambiguity, and a friendship grew from those commentary debates.
I have had a challenging year. This block headed opinionated man proved to be made of a whole lot more than our differing opinions, and via this platform has helped me continue to value my contribution. (As I said I was very athletic, now I struggle to leave home due to illness and it challenged my sense of purpose and self) He is a big softy, with a big bravado, with a big mouth to match.
That much we have in common anyway.
I look forward to your next write, BOTH OF YOU!
I hope you both partake in next weekends free write. I will be keeping an eye out for it.
I am a blundering menace with good intentions. I sincerely apologise.
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You are so sweet!! And now I apologize that I said in jest that you should and didn't put a big smiley face. I love how you care so much and want to showcase great writing.
Big hugs to you and I so hope that you are going to be healthy again soon. It is so hard to go through a long time of our bodies not cooperating.
I think it is all good and you might have brought about a friendship between two Vets on this platform.
Bit love to you!
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I had no issue with the suggestion of a smiley 😂 At All! I didn't spot it at all. My pulse didn't raise either to be honest . I take responsibility for my actions, it is hard to interpret intent, jest, intent, etc in these contexts, an emoji can speak volumes (even for the most articulate and thoughtful ... Which I'm not, I'm impulsive and slightly not with it sometimes, but I always come in peace.)
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