Women in War

A couple of weeks ago a friend invited me to a social paintball game. Now the previous time I played paintball I was 10 years younger and 30 kilos lighter. I also just want to take the opportunity to inform the  people who mistook my cries of pain every time a ball hit me that it was not an Amazonian or Pict war cry. It was just me screaming like a girl.

This time it was different. First off I had a mother of an automatic gun. Strange how you feel less vulnerable with a massive automatic in your hands. Which begs the question does size and caliber really matter? My answer is an unequivocal yes.

For the first two games I cowered in a bunker. And lo and behold, some sniper with a gun, or maker in paintball parlance, which if I would guess shot .68 cal boomerang balls, hit me in the shoulder.

Then something happened: During the last two games something in my mind changed and it changed from survival mode to attack like a madwoman mode. I ran out, sprayed my opponents with paint balls, dived very  graciously (as gracious as a 40 something overweight woman can be) for cover. And wow, what a rush.

In the end our team lost to a very experienced team of hard core paint ballers. Age should not matter. Ok, they were 9, 10 and 12 years old. Fierce little pre teens I tell you.

But it was as if something primal came out. Being in the moment, throwing caution to the wind, enjoying a little bit of peace and quiet in such a hectic world, where racing thoughts are the norm. Such a bunch of contradictions but hey, so be it. It was just a game.

But during my research into the role of women in war (that sounds profound but I was actually looking for a name for our new paintball team) I came across some fascinating facts. If one listens to the mostly American debates about the role of women in war, one would tend to think that women's only role in combat in the past was either as nurses or as prostitutes. Strange that, women are always depicted as either saintly or fiends from hell. Another debate.

During the Second World War the Soviets had women flying bombers, they had snipers and they had all women military units. The Night Witches flew sorties and bomb the Germans and the 1077th Anti Aircraft Regiment took on a whole German Panzer Division. The women of the 1077th was all very young, untrained and ill equipped but at the Siege of Stalingrad they turned their anti aircraft weapons on the advancing German army, not stopping until their whole Regiment was wiped out by the Germans.

So besides Boudicea, Joan of Arc (who was depicted as a raving lunatic in the Mila Jovovich movie) there are a lot of examples of women fighting in active combat: The Soviet Battalion of Death, the Cuban Shock Battalion etc.

Are women more fragile than men? That debate is still raging. Are women more at risk for atrocities committed against them when they are captured? Men are also at risk for inhumane torture and even rape.

But in the end, I believe the fighting spirit is the same. Most humans will fight with everything they have to protect that which is precious to them and what they believe is right.

My experience in martial arts taught me that women are much more fierce during competitions than their male counterparts. You should see them rumble. Maybe the same is true of war. Hopefully we will never have to find out though.