Posted on 11/25/2013 8:27:58 AM PST by NCjim
Soldier beauty queen Theresa Vail, Miss Kansas, has entered the fray created this week when a female Army colonel at Fort Leavenworth branded another female soldier too pretty to use in Army publicity photos.
In the leaked email exchange first reported by Politico, Col. Lynette Arnhart warned her colleagues that photos of “average-looking” and “ugly” women should be used in public relations campaigns to attract more women into combat roles.
“Unfortunately that is the sick reality and one of the many stereotypes I'm trying to break,” Vail, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
She added: “However, it is going to take an army of women to break that perception, not just myself.”
Politico reports that Arnhart is deputy director of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command’s Analysis Center at Fort Leavenworth. She’s heading a study looking into ways to integrate more women into Army combat jobs.
She reportedly took issue with a Pentagon photo that ran with an article in the November issue of Army Magazine about the Army’s efforts to attract more female soldiers.
The photo showed Cpl. Kristine Tejada of the 1st Cavalry division on security detail in Iraq.
In her email, Arnhart reportedly wrote that the photo “shows a pretty woman, wearing makeup while on deployed duty. Such photos undermine the rest of the message (and may even make people ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty).”
In general, Arnhart wrote, “ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead.”
According to Politico, she wrote that a photo of a female soldier with mud on her face used by news agencies last spring sent “a much different message — one of women willing to do the dirty work necessary in order to get the job done.”
Like Miss Kansas, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), weighed in on Twitter, calling Arnhart’s comments “another example that @USArmy just doesn’t get it as it debates if pretty girls should be used in pamphlets.”
After the email leaked, Army spokesman George Wright issued a statement saying that Arnhart’s comments “were an internal email conversation” and “not an Army position.”
She looks very.............qualified.
Women don’t belong in combat. Neither do men for that matter, but if it’s necessary, then it’s necessary for men.
I surrender!
Nice.....form.
People making an excuse to be relevant and employed.
oh my... All the blood left my brain there.
Had a male, much less a mere white male, said such things about beautiful versus ugly women, the Femi-Nazi harridans, the dykes, ad nauseam, would be at full bray.
Let the circus begin!
It’s popcorn time.
;-)
Exactly, every military recruitment poster features the dude with the chiseled jaw.
The story is actually about the media’s salacious appetite for PC controversy.
The internal PR correspondence that discusses the best approach is a reasonable debate. That it was had between women furthers the appropriateness of the very business discussion. The media pressing that there are suggestive implications associated with having women (pretty or ugly) in advertising for a male dominated industry (military) is what is ludicrous.
Ice is cold.
Guess this womyn was disappointed bulldyke recruitment hasn’t gone up fast enough for her tastes since the repeal of DADT.
Why am I thinking Hunger Games?
The Israeli Army is fortunate to have the most beautiful women in the world!!!
#24 - Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.
my thoughts too, she is wanting more homo women to enter to give herself and her pals more choice .
Exactly, every military recruitment poster features the dude with the chiseled jaw.
They must think that appeal works but it still leaves me wondering..........................
won’t let me see the comments left for some reason so if a freeper can get those comments then could you please reply to me with the comments
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.