That's okay. He was just experiencing "real life."
Or, is it: "It was tolerated in that culture at the time"?
Whatever it was. Webb isn't responsible for any of it.
We'll have to get the latest excuse from Webb's MommyStreamMedia.
More on the great Jim Webb!
I can see where Jim Webb put the priorities of women. His Navy claims about helping women have been debunked.
1.And I have never met a woman, including the dozens of female midshipmen I encountered during my recent semester as a professor at the Naval Academy, whom I would trust to provide those men with combat leadership." (pg. 148, "Women Can't Fight," Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979.
2. "Many women appear to be having problems with their sexuality…What kind of woman would seek out the Academy routine?" (pg. 282, "Women Can't Fight," Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979)
3. "What the whole world may not know is that women did not attain these positions in the same way that men historically have…Women will not be leading men inside the brigade this year. They will be managing them, buttressed by the officers who hurried them along. And the morale of the brigade will demonstrate this distinction far better than this article ever could." (pg. 277, "Women Can't Fight," Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979)
4. Webb referred to female midshipman at Annapolis as "thunder thighs." (Baltimore Sun, 8/28/92)
5. "Tailhook should have been a three or maybe five-day story." (Speech to the Naval Institute Annual Conference, Washington Times, 4/25/96)
That was 1979 and The Cosmos was 1986. Times have changed but Jim Webb stays the same.The pattern is there and it continues with his novels. To argue there is not a problem is absurd. I doubt you can make a stronger case showing a pattern of sexism then Webb has with his words and actions.