... and the horse you rode in on, and the dog that followed you
Dear Michael Coren,
Fuck you you sanctimonious, condescending coward.
Dave said it best:
I can't recall when I've read anything so sexist and so wrong in this century.
Last week a young girl dressed up as a soldier died in the increasingly futile and pointless war in Afghanistan. She was 21 years old, had been in the country for two weeks on her first tour of duty and probably weighed a little over 100 pounds.
WHAT? In the name of fuck, does her age and appearance have to do with anything?!!! Do you think that anyone else who died in Afghanistan was older because of their sex? Or were they lighter? Or heavier?
Dressed up?!!! ... At the very least she wore combats with a pride you can never claim. You haven't even wiped your ass in a forward operating position.
Please know that I mean no disrespect to Karine Blais or to her family and I grieve for her and them. But what on earth was she doing in such a place and in such a job?
Oh... yes you do! In fact, you should be getting a pink slip for writing it, you piece of social conservative political manure.
How dare you, Mr. Coren, presume to suggest that Karine Blais was inadequate to the job she undertook, and that she died doing?
How dare you presume to suggest that she "should have" made different choices? How can you possibly know what her choices were, or what would have made her happy, or put her talents, her skill, and her courage to best use?
How dare you project your own ideas of the attributes a young woman should have ("innocence," "gentleness," "grace") on her when she cannot ever correct you, all in order to protect your own ideas about what woman should do and be ("Women nurture, give birth, care ....")?
How dare you say that she was "dressed up as a soldier," then presume to defend your conscious belittling of her career, her skill, and her work because in your view (with your utter lack of experience as a soldier of any sort) "there are few if any women who have the skills required to serve as a front-line combat trooper."
How dare you use this dead soldier's body and image as a pulpit from which to spout your inane, outmoded, ideas about where women should shouldn't be?
And how dare you posture and lay any claim to bravery, as though by besmirching the reputation of someone who died doing her fucking job you are taking some brave stand against those silly postmodern liberals who want to send little girls out to get killed?
That young woman enlisted. She made a clear and conscious choice, for whatever reasons she had, to go and fight on her country's behalf. She underwent the training. She did the PT. She learned how to handle her equipment. And she died because her vehicle encountered a landmine-a not-uncommon way for soldiers to die.
And you sir, are no more fit to write about her than you would be to black her boots, or those of any woman in Canada's Armed Forces.
-z.
P.S. Your editor should be ashamed too.
Fuck you you sanctimonious, condescending coward.
Dave said it best:
I can't recall when I've read anything so sexist and so wrong in this century.
Last week a young girl dressed up as a soldier died in the increasingly futile and pointless war in Afghanistan. She was 21 years old, had been in the country for two weeks on her first tour of duty and probably weighed a little over 100 pounds.
WHAT? In the name of fuck, does her age and appearance have to do with anything?!!! Do you think that anyone else who died in Afghanistan was older because of their sex? Or were they lighter? Or heavier?
Dressed up?!!! ... At the very least she wore combats with a pride you can never claim. You haven't even wiped your ass in a forward operating position.
Please know that I mean no disrespect to Karine Blais or to her family and I grieve for her and them. But what on earth was she doing in such a place and in such a job?
Oh... yes you do! In fact, you should be getting a pink slip for writing it, you piece of social conservative political manure.
How dare you, Mr. Coren, presume to suggest that Karine Blais was inadequate to the job she undertook, and that she died doing?
How dare you presume to suggest that she "should have" made different choices? How can you possibly know what her choices were, or what would have made her happy, or put her talents, her skill, and her courage to best use?
How dare you project your own ideas of the attributes a young woman should have ("innocence," "gentleness," "grace") on her when she cannot ever correct you, all in order to protect your own ideas about what woman should do and be ("Women nurture, give birth, care ....")?
How dare you say that she was "dressed up as a soldier," then presume to defend your conscious belittling of her career, her skill, and her work because in your view (with your utter lack of experience as a soldier of any sort) "there are few if any women who have the skills required to serve as a front-line combat trooper."
How dare you use this dead soldier's body and image as a pulpit from which to spout your inane, outmoded, ideas about where women should shouldn't be?
And how dare you posture and lay any claim to bravery, as though by besmirching the reputation of someone who died doing her fucking job you are taking some brave stand against those silly postmodern liberals who want to send little girls out to get killed?
That young woman enlisted. She made a clear and conscious choice, for whatever reasons she had, to go and fight on her country's behalf. She underwent the training. She did the PT. She learned how to handle her equipment. And she died because her vehicle encountered a landmine-a not-uncommon way for soldiers to die.
And you sir, are no more fit to write about her than you would be to black her boots, or those of any woman in Canada's Armed Forces.
-z.
P.S. Your editor should be ashamed too.