Riff: A More Masculine Military

If you missed it, well, you didn’t, really. Just a smarmy pundit punching holes in the sky. Mr. Tucker Carlson, who is, among other things, not a woman and not a military veteran, weighed in on “President Biden’s military” with this bizarre criticism:

"…while China's military becomes more masculine …. our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore since men and women no longer exist."

Okay. There’s a lot to unpack here. For the sake of this post, I won’t open the larger (and extremely important) conversation about whether the US military in its current iteration, context, and missions keeps US families safe. The US military mostly keeps capitalism safe. Moving on.

How do changes in the military make our country safer?

In his remarkably untuned rant, Mr. Carlson asks “How do changes in the military make our country safer?”

I can actually answer that. It’s simple. It’s in a term the military throws around: force multiplier. A force multiplier is something you put in to increase your efficacy or your power. It’s decisions you make, either small unit leaders or larger policies, that support the warrior doing their work.

An NCO who mentors her people is a force multiplier. A bullying NCO who creates a stressed out work environment is the opposite of a force multiplier.

Let’s look at whether the changes President Biden implemented are force multipliers. They include:

“designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, creating maternity flight suits [and] updating requirements for their hairstyles.”

Designing body armor that fits women properly. How is this not an obviously good thing. We do, in fact, have different bodies. Women are not just small men, and wearing hand-me-down Flak jackets that don’t fit subtracts from their ability to safely do their work. Warriors wearing appropriately fitted body armor: this shouldn’t be a question.

Addressing the issue of women hobbled by body armor that doesn’t fit: definitely a force multiplier.

Tailoring combat uniforms for women. Whatever your opinions on women in combat, women in the US military have been in combat for decades. Period. The end. Read about women in combat here. All opening combat arms MOS (jobs) to women actually changed is they now get acknowledged (sort of), and careerist servicewomen may have advantages towards promotion to greater leadership roles. Move on.

Creating maternity flight suits. Mr. Carlson had a field day with this one, a very, very stupid field day, about how “maybe pregnant women make the best pilots” and “pregnant women will be fighting our wars.” Yeah, some will and some have, so what? It displays the ignorance of someone who has never served a day in his life. First, not just pilots wear flight suits. Air crews have different jobs, not all of them pilots. Women can, and do, still work while pregnant. Secondly, if a woman is a pilot, she has worked her tail off to get there, she’s smart, she’s able to manage long-term career goals: if she chooses to have a baby, that’s her right and we should trust her to make an informed decision best for her.

Does accommodating women who are in the service and choose to have children add or detract from our force? A simple uniform accommodation allows a servicemember to continue to do her work more comfortably, suggests she is valued, and supports her in balancing the demands of service and family. A change that helped men feel thus supported wouldn’t be in question. Force multiplier.

Finally, updating hair requirements. Hair regulations were reviewed because they contained racial bias. Let’s just be real clear here: the military is NOT white. Nearly half of enlisted soldiers (that’s Army, specifically) are Black. Reviewing rules that have forced young women of color into time consuming, expensive, or painful chemical procedures in order to fit white-ordained standards of “professionalism” means warriors can still show up to work without stressing about one more damn thing.

By the way, according to the Black Woman’s Blueprint, between 40-60% of American Black women have been sexually abused before the age of 18. We can reasonably assume there are Black women serving who have already been shamed and harmed for their bodies. Let’s stop telling Black women there’s something wrong with their bodes.

Caring about your people: force multiplier.

Carlson’s problem

The biggest issue here is: Mr. Carlson and his ilk don’t think of women when they think of the military. It’s so out of touch it’s incredible. Yes, the Marine Corps remains 93% men. But the Army is nearing 50% women. The Air Force has an even gender break for a decade. The Navy is 40% women. When we speak about women in the military, we are still speaking of a minority, but, exempting the Marine Corps, not by much.

When we speak about women in the military, we are speaking about the military.

Response of the US Military

This is the one I’m tripping on. Military leaders are calling him TF out. Honestly I would be enjoying it —

The Pentagon: But what we absolutely won’t do is take personnel advice from a talk show host or the Chinese military.

The U. S. Space Command’s seniormost enlisted told troops to “get back to work” and “remember that those opinions were made by an individual who has never served a day in his life.”

— except I can’t shake the concern it’s a bit of lip service. If military leaders are so proud of women among them and so quick to advocate on their behalf, should we expect to see annual sexual assault rates deviate from their upward trend? Should we expect servicemembers who rape their coworkers to actually go to jail?

The theoretical can be easier to support than the specific.

Hate the crime, not the criminal

I’ve seen a few memes floating around insulting Mr. Carlson personally, saying “this guy is saying the military isn’t masculine enough?” with the implication he’s not able to make such a statement because he is, himself, not masculine. I feel similarly when people called T***p fat: something like, guys, fat isn’t the problem here. Fat is not a sin. Men don’t have some standard of masculinity they must meet to have opinions. There is enough to dispute Mr. Carlson about without insulting his bow tie phase. We don’t need to shame anyone’s presentation. It’s enough to call out their willful ignorance.

A final note

There has been a surprising amount of vitriol re: pregnant servicemembers. I’m going to say this once, quietly, and completely: I credit a pregnant junior enlisted Marine with getting me out of a very bad situation alive. It wasn’t a combat situation. It was a Marine doing her job with care, discretion, and dedication — which is all of us ever do.

I don’t know where she is, but her kid must be ten now…. I’ve lost touch with her, but I would love to tell that kid their mom saved my life.