On Wed, 3 Sep 1997, Daniel L Krashin wrote:
> Actually, I thought Demi Moore was strikingly miscast...I didn't think she
> looked tough enough, even with the muscles, to be a plausible SEAL. I don't
> think she looked mentally tough enough for the role, either -- I can't think
> of many actresses that could pull it off, maybe Angela Basset, Sigourney
> Weaver (although she's too old for the part), or that woman who played in the
> Terminator movies. With the shaved head, she looked like she was ready to
> star in the "Sinead O'Connor Story" -- not like a trained killer.
I think it's more important to _be_ tough than to look tough.
That's exactly the argument of those who object women in the military --
because they are rarely have those three hundred pounds of muscles (and
an extra-savage face expression) that are assumed necessary to have to be
a good "trained killer". Hey, I am 5'10" and 120 pounds, but I could
probably kill a person with a matchbox with appropriate training.
The whole point of the movie is that an _average_ woman can become a
SEAL, just as well as an average man (after all, none of the guys looked
like Schwatzenegger). All you need is good health and a lot of will power
to go through all this training. And Demi Moore is someone that most
women could relate to.
>
> >3. I wonder if it's a common practice to perform military training in a
> >foreign country, which is not at war with US, including killing some native
> >soldiers just for the sake of training. Even if it's a country like
> >Lybia. Jeez, and then we wonder why we get bombs in public facilities.
> >Maybe that's also part of training for the other side's special service
> >schools.
>
> Speaking as a military man, I can say that precious little about "GI Jane"
> was true to life. The US *does* do joint military exercises with friendly
> countries (including such newly friendly countries as the Ukraine and Poland)
> on a regular basis. The US military generally doesn't kill the people
> they're training with, in fact, at least in Germany, they pay handsomely for
> the crops damaged by manuvers.
In GIJane, no one obviously paid for the damage. Besides, Lybia in the
movie did not seem in any way informed about upcoming military exercises.
And all the local soldiers who got killed just for happenning to come by
did not give their consent to that. Imagine Lybian SEAL landing on the
coast of Florida (just for training purposes), shooting some coast guards
strolling by and taking off? That would be the same thing. What I am
saying, it unrealistic to expect people treat you better than you treat them.
> This is one of the lasting legacies of Cold War propaganda -- America taunted
> Eastern Europe for having ugly women and a poor selection of consumer goods.
Yep, and now they all are portrayed as a bunch of evil mobsters and/or
prostitutes trying to lure nice American guys into marriage for green
card purposes (think movies from Air Force One to Extreme Measures, and TV
shows from Sentinel to Step by Step). Cold War has nothing to do with it
anymore. There is simply a need for an enemy image in this culture, and
Russians seem to fit best. Since they look more like "average"
white Americans while being totally different, they make a better
representation of "hidden evil" than extraterrestrials or Arab terrorists
whom one could recognize right away. It's an ethnic prejudice, not a
political one.
> By the way, Marina, have you seen any recent Russian SF in translation
> available in this country? I have a little collection, but it seems like
> people stopped publishing it after the early 80's.
Well, I don't think I've seen any, actually. Except _Master and
Margarita_, which is fantasy, and written in 1930's. The best Russian sf
I read in Russian were novels by Strugatsky brothers, but I'm not sure if
they have ever been translated to English. Most sf of late 80s and early
90's Russian sf I read was very heavily politisized. Besides there appeared
some horror stories, which never existed in traditional literature
before, as well as paperback romances. But if I find some new translated
sf, I will let you know.
Marina
"Femininity is code for femaleness plus whatever society
happens to be selling at the time."
Naomi Wolf
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