Not so male as you might think.Originally Posted by SWJED
Also, it's not necessarily the first thing I advertise about myself, because it's not the most important thing to me. It's not something I can avoid at a conference -- but then, being the prettiest person in any room full of military historians is great fun (that's mostly tongue in cheek) -- but I don't feel the need to make a big deal about it otherwise. And I've stayed out of the subject of women in the military as a professional matter because it's too trite for my taste. On the other hand, being of the female variety does help out when doing things like talking to veterans -- not so hard on the eyes, add a smile, and they'll talk to me forever, tell me everything I want to know.
Of course, there is a whole, strange demographic of men who fall for me because I can and will talk about war and combat with abandon -- it makes my husband chuckle -- I recall he noticed once, with this LtCol, he turned to me at the end of a social evening and said "He's totally sweet on you!" Of course, he can relate, because he fell for me during a field exercise. I was a civilian/student visitor, and I was super enthusiastic to learn, see, and do whatever was available to us. I was the only one to separate from the group and talk to the Marines in the units we were visiting, I was the first to volunteer to fire the howitzer -- oh, what a sweet joyous memory, pull string go boom -- and just generally mixed it up as much as possible. Anyway, it's a minor hazard of my profession.
As for the demographic that is attracted to the subject matter of this forum, well, a lot of it does dovetail out of professional experience of some sort, which would tend to dampen the female participation. I may just be strange. I like to joke that I was the son two fathers never had -- played sports with one, went off to work (carpentry) with the other -- so maybe that influenced my interests. On the other hand, I consciously chose not to do the military, because I never wanted to be part of something that, by the rules, would bar me from full participation. But I never would have joined expecting the military to be something it wasn't, like a sorority (but then I never wanted to be in a sorority), or a place where off-color was off-limits.*
I don't know if any of this answers the questions. It's just my perspective -- maybe you'll find it useful.
And FYI, the username is not poser -- it happens to be my middle name. There's a word for a person with a name that fits their profession, but I can't think of it now. Anyway, it's a family name, and it was a terrible burden as a child (you can imagine the teasing), but as an adult I've come to treasure it -- maybe because I had to earn it.
*Historian's hazard, but I can't help dropping a footnote here and there. Anyway, to the point -- obviously, I don't profile as the standard Mrs. Field Grade Officer. But that's not always obvious. When my husband was training up for his deployment in 29 Palms, I went up for a visit and to bring the team some treats. Anyway, at first the guys kept scampering by me, with their heads down, and nobody would really talk. It took me aback. My husband said, "Yeah, they were pretty scared of you, that they might offend you -- but then you dropped the f-bomb at some point, and they totally relaxed after that."
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