Setting the movement back one breast at a time

I want to be angry. I really do. I want to fire off strongly worded letters to anyone who will listen, buuuuuuut I'm not. In fact, I'm smirking and slightly scoffing.

The BBC News reports today about a woman who was demoted and subsequently resigned from her post in the US Air Force. She resigned because she was demoted as punishment for posing in Playboy magazine. Further probes into related articles show that she is not the only military woman to have been punished for her appearance in the magazine: two women serving in the Navy were discharged early or dishonorably in 1998 and 2000.

On one hand, she can certainly do what she wants with her body. However, when she thought it was a good idea to pose nude or provocatively bearing the seals and symbols of the US military, I think she should have known there would be some problems. Now, of course, I am curious as to how her superiors discovered her feature in the first place. I mean one can only wonder how these men stumbled upon this magazine *gasp*...

I have a love/hate relationship with Playboy and its creator, Mr. Hefner. I wonder how much at fault they can be for letting this woman pose with her uniform, knowing that two of her predecessors were discharged for the same thing. A simple, "Hey, Michelle, by the way, a couple of other women did this and were discharged, just so you know," would have been nice. At the end of the day she made her own decision, but still.

Is this the kind of shit that women in the military need to be dealing with? How could she have felt good knowing that her fellow airmen would be ogling her goodies and yet still expected them to respect her around the base? Ms. Lady is all about the "women can be sex agents" line of thought, but sometimes a woman has to put the needs of the entire gender above herself. Especially when you are talking about a field like the military where woman still suffer extreme abuse and discrimination. AND if you take a look at her picture, you have to be disappointed just looking at her bangs. *sigh*

The one part of me that is angry is that a woman can pose nude for a magazine and she is swiftly dealt with, yet male military personnel can get away with rape and in some cases murder. That makes me sad. That is probably when I am angry with this woman for not making a better decision. She was probably a good soldier. She was probably on her way to more promotions. She was probably a role model to some girl somewhere in her life. Now she's known as "that one chic that posed naked and got demoted".

Talk about setting the movement back...not to mention her child-like decision to resign when she was only demoted. I'm almost forced to say she should have taken it like a man...all the way to the ACLU, to the Supreme Court, to NOW. Then her gaping legs, pouty lips and gratuitous breast shots would actually mean something to the rest of us.