When “G.I. Jane,” starring Demi Moore came out in 1997, none of the scads of literature about SEALs and SEAL training was out there yet. SEAL warriors like Chris Kyle, Jocko Willink, and David Goggins weren’t yet household names, and so I thought “G.I. Jane” was big fun. There was cool stuff happening, even though everybody at the time was pretty sure no woman could ever pass SEAL bootcamp (BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL), notoriously the most brutal military training in the world.
And Yet!
Apparently, a woman has now passed BUD/S. According to SOAA (Special Operations Association of America):“Has there ever been a female Navy SEAL? While the U.S. Navy has yet to have a female join their ranks as a Navy SEAL, they did recently have the first female to ever pass the grueling and demanding U.S. Navy SEAL officer training course. ... Originally, Navy SEALs were just one of two communities that were required by law to not allow women to join. The other is Navy SWCC (Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen). However, that is not the case today.”
I’m not surprised. Women who are on the cutting edge, involved in things that were previously considered male-only endeavors, can pretty much do everything men do. Lynn Hill free-climbing The Nose, solo, on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, before any man could do it, comes to mind (along with her tongue-in-cheek exclamation after exiting the 3,000-foot climb: “It goes, boys!”) And have you seen those top-level CrossFit women? Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t have abs to rival theirs at the height of his bodybuilding career. I jest, of course. But only slightly.
The Story
“G.I. Jane” mostly comes off as a 1997 recruitment advertisement made by Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Thelma & Louise”) for the Navy, with the intent to show exactly just how tough U.S. Navy SEAL training is. The Scott boys must have had some kind of deal with the Navy because Ridley’s brother Tony made “Top Gun.”
Moore’s character, Jordan, is supposed to be the first woman ever to undergo BUD/S. She’s singled out for abuse by D.H. Lawrence-quoting Master Chief John James Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen).
The question is never whether Jordan will make it; it’s how, and what kinds of fetishized punishment audiences can watch her endure on the wet, sandy beach-run to self-actualization. It’s basically an essay in eroticized brutality and masochism, and if not for its faux feminist credentials, it would have probably been roundly denounced as misogynist.
The Main Issue
The age-old question is, should women serve in the military in combatant roles? They definitely already do in Israel and in war-torn African countries, the latter of which I dismiss because they employ child soldiers, and because women and children traditionally really ought not to be fighting in wars, which was always a man’s job.But there are highly competent female fighter-jet pilots. And even hardcore Navy SEALs say they cannot understand the moxie and cool-headedness needed to pull off an insane, pitch-black, nighttime, flying-by-instruments-only, aircraft carrier landing, in 30-foot waves, in a thunderstorm, which pilots call “a night in the barrel.” But women can do that now.
What I also find convincing about the topic is that there are two former Delta Force operators who have become action-thriller authors. Both of them have a female character written into the story who’s every bit as good as the men on the team, with the added specialty that in operations that call for more spy than warrior, the women can do their hair, put on lipstick, wear little black dresses, catch the enemy off guard, and put them in compromising situations. If these guys didn’t think women can operate at the level men can, their books wouldn’t be as believable as they are. On the other hand, people tend to be attracted to the outrageous; maybe these guys are just selling books.
Let’s say for a minute that combat is a good thing for women to do. At one point, Demi Moore famously snarls a certain anatomical curse beloved of men. Wellll... but, you know, Jordan—you don’t actually have one of those. It’s one thing when a woman is able to compete in the macho, male-dominated world of spec ops military, but when aping the worst of male behavior is seen as empowering, then you know that the well-intended aspects of feminism got discombobulated somewhere along the way.
“The Israelis tried it—women in combat. Seems men couldn’t get used to the sight of women getting blown open. They’d linger over the wounded females, obviously trying to save those who couldn’t be saved, often to the detriment of the mission.”
