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Defeminization in the military & of athletes

April 10, 2013 by Sam Lebold   

For my final CI blog, I want to address something that might not technically be an “issue” with women in the military, but is still none the less something that really made me think, especially in light of a recent newspaper article: defeminization. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines the term “defeminize” as such: “to divest of feminine qualities or characteristics”. Essentially, it’s often used to describe situations or instances where women take on more masculine qualities (also known as masculinization)

This summer, as the Olympics were wrapping up, a Turkish news reporter Yuksel Aytug penned the article “Womanhood is dying at the Olympics” in a Turkish newspaper The Daily Sabah (sorry I couldn’t find a copy of the article online. I know it’s on the newspaper’s website, but the website was in Turkish, and I was struggling a bit with that, speaking English and all…) In this article, he criticized female athletes in the Olympics because they looked too masculine, calling them pathetic. He stated that women should receive extra points for looking more feminine.

Obviously, the article received much backlash. I know personally I’m blown away by the abilities of female Olympic athletes, and I could care less what they looked like. They lead healthy, fit lifestyles, and they’re able to accomplish incredible things. It’s hard for me to grapple with the fact that anyone would criticize such talented athletes for their body types, because to me, there shouldn’t even be a standard for how “feminine” a woman looks.

While this article was about female athletes, I’ve found in talking to a couple of my friends in ROTC that this has become somewhat of an issue within the military as well as more and more women join the military. In a sense, I sort of equate athletes and members of the armed forces: both put a great emphasis on physical ability and make use of uniforms (which purposely make everyone look the same, regardless, at least in the case of the military, of gender). In terms of defeminization in the military, uniforms are a bit of an interesting topic. At least for ROTC, women are required to wear their hair in a bun, and they wear the same uniforms as men (there are different cuts of naval uniforms for men and women, but for air force and army, men and women wear the same uniforms). For their dress uniforms, women are required to wear suit-dresses that, aside from the skirt, are nearly identical to the men’s dress uniforms. As a whole, there’s a great push to make women and men as indistinguishable as possible, both in ROTC and in the actual armed forces.

The interesting thing is that many people have conflicting views on the subject, including me. To be honest, I’m not quite sure how I feel about defeminization, whether for those in the armed forces or for athletes. Now I myself am not in the military, but I do come from a military family and I can picture myself in the situation quite well. There’s a part of me that understands the necessity of equivalent standards of dress and physical fitness for men and women in the military, and that part of me wants to make the argument that women shouldn’t have to dress any differently. However, there’s another part of me that would be annoyed if I couldn’t wear a beautiful dress to the military ball and had to wear a suit dress instead (sure it comes with the job, but I know of a lot of girls that feel it’s unfair that they have to wear masculine-looking uniforms instead of dresses to formal events). And therein lies the issue: defeminization is not the same as equalization. Rather, defeminization is the effort to make a female more masculine, to place more masculine traits on a woman. This can be seen especially well in military uniforms: they’re not made to make men and women look the same, they’re made to make women look more like men. The message this sends is that in order for women to participate in the military, they cannot embrace their femininity, but rather have to make themselves seem as masculine as possible. But what does it even mean to “embrace femininity”?

I think part of the issue is that the military is one of the most demanding co-ed work places. In terms of athletics, there are still different teams for men and women. In all other places of work, the differences between men and women aren’t always showcased as clearly. However, because of the extreme physical demands of the military and the nature of the job, men and women are often compared, especially in the modern day. This is the result of the fact that for the vast majority of time, the military has been a man’s world; it’s only recently that women have been allowed to serve in the same positions as men.

It’s kind of an odd concept to think about. What really provides the greatest equality for women: defeminization, or celebration of femininity? And what could that ever really look like in the military?


7 Comments »

  1. Emily Pearlman says:

    Great post! It really made me think! I’m not quite sure how I stand on this issue, either. I can definitely see it from both ways. I wonder what women in the military think? Maybe someone should do some sort of survey to see if women want to be defeminized or not.

  2. Jenny Dobson says:

    Interesting post! It definitely made me think a lot. I think I have a problem with the term defeminization. I think femininity is undergoing a transformation and it is being redefined rather than decreasing.

    Logically for something like the miltary it would not make sense for women to wear skirts. Wearing pants allows women to be on equal playing fields because it is the best clothing to ensure full range of motion for activity.
    However you did bring up the point that if a female wanted to wear a gown to a military ball, she should be able to. Are they not able to?

  3. amc6291 says:

    Great post, Sam!! I think that you do a wonderful job of highlighting that many women across the country are, in fact, molded to be men according to the career path that they choose. While defeminization does seem to be occurring (in the military especially), is it a bad thing completely?? We need the strongest and smartest individuals to defend our country. Is it just a misconception that these women are being defeminized?? Maybe what is happening is that the standards are being set equal for both men and women, yet it only appears that these standards are “manly”. While I’m not sure that I believe that argument, I do think that it is important for a woman to keep her identity, regardless of the job that she chooses to pursue.

  4. TJ Sullivan says:

    Really awesome post Sam! Great insight into the issue there. I think part of the difficulty with the defeminization of women’s uniforms in the military is that the military uniform standards place emphasis on professional appearance and cleanliness. Thus, in the case of women having to wear buns, I feel that’s justified. Women’s uniforms should be designed to be just as professional as men’s. Granted, that’s where the confusion lies. Where’s the line? But honestly, I agree with you completely Sam. Defeminization is not the same as equality. We need to focus on giving actual equality, not the appearance of it.

  5. Alyssa Ardolino says:

    This entire passage is really thought provoking to me. I think you make some very, very insightful conclusions. It’s true–women are made to model men to be in the military. I also like your conclusion, “defeminization is not the same as equalization.” I’m not sure how I feel about defeminization. Of course, I want whoever protects our country to be strong and powerful, but does that mean he or she must be manly? Can you be strong and powerful and be a woman?

  6. Conor Wynne says:

    This is a great post. I obviously disagree also with the Turkish writer, whatever his motives may be, women who compete on the world scale will likely be extremely muscular, a form that is definitely difficult to attain for females. I think that in the military and sports, women may seem to act like men just because of their careers. To a normal person, it may be tough to comprehend women in these positions so one would look for various reasons to criticize these women.

  7. Emily Prater says:

    Interesting post with thoughtful connections, Sam. After reading this, I’m torn. I can totally see where your viewpoints are coming from, and I find myself agreeing with them. That being said, I’m left to wonder if maybe we’re thinking too much… it is no secret if women join the military, they are expected to ‘defeminize’ and dress similar to the men. Especially in the part where you describe the outfits, I subconsciously imagined all the many women around campus in their ROTC uniforms along with their slick-back buns– I’d be interested to hear their thoughts on this defeminization you write about. I guess I just feel as though they are aware of and accept this role because the duty and its counterparts is what they desire to do. Again… I’m not sure how to feel about it!

    PS… I’m fairly disappointed in you for not being able to interpret the Turkish article. Smh.

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