When Kayla Williams was in Iraq, her and a bunch of other soldiers were training to take cover when mortars hit [a mortar is like a machine that has a long tube-like missile to throw out bombs, kind of like a cannonball]. She talks about, “Zoe’s near-death experience...”(244)
She said that a mortar threw a bomb pretty close to the tank about, “fifty feet away-leaving a crater seven feet in diameter…”(244) So, just like how she was trained, she told everyone to go to the nearest building and take cover. As they were approaching the building for safety, “her team leader [who was male] appeared out of a building and stopped her.” (244)
He said, “What are you doing? Get back and fight!” (244)
And Zoe responded, “The radio said take cover!”(244)
“No!” her team leader yelled as more mortars hit the base. “The Vehicle is sufficient cover! Go back! That’s an order!” (244)
Frantically, Zoe contacted the radio station at the base, and they told her to disobey his orders and that, “You must be inside the building-NOW!” (244) and she did. The team leader was talking to others, and said that because she was a female, then that’s why she panicked so quickly, and that if she had been a man, she would have been out there the whole time. Even though she was following orders as she was supposed to.
These are problems that women face n a daily basis as well. Men think that women cannot handle and compose themselves when something scary or nerve racking is occurring. It doesn’t mean that they can’t handle it, I think it may appear that way because women are more emotional than men are, and because of that, then they are seen as weak individuals.
If Zoe hadn’t listened to the radio, or followed through with what she was supposed to do, which was take cover in the building, then she would have died. She would have because after the firing was over, they went back to check out the area, and the tracks where the tank were stopped because there was another huge crater.
She said that a mortar threw a bomb pretty close to the tank about, “fifty feet away-leaving a crater seven feet in diameter…”(244) So, just like how she was trained, she told everyone to go to the nearest building and take cover. As they were approaching the building for safety, “her team leader [who was male] appeared out of a building and stopped her.” (244)
He said, “What are you doing? Get back and fight!” (244)
And Zoe responded, “The radio said take cover!”(244)
“No!” her team leader yelled as more mortars hit the base. “The Vehicle is sufficient cover! Go back! That’s an order!” (244)
Frantically, Zoe contacted the radio station at the base, and they told her to disobey his orders and that, “You must be inside the building-NOW!” (244) and she did. The team leader was talking to others, and said that because she was a female, then that’s why she panicked so quickly, and that if she had been a man, she would have been out there the whole time. Even though she was following orders as she was supposed to.
These are problems that women face n a daily basis as well. Men think that women cannot handle and compose themselves when something scary or nerve racking is occurring. It doesn’t mean that they can’t handle it, I think it may appear that way because women are more emotional than men are, and because of that, then they are seen as weak individuals.
If Zoe hadn’t listened to the radio, or followed through with what she was supposed to do, which was take cover in the building, then she would have died. She would have because after the firing was over, they went back to check out the area, and the tracks where the tank were stopped because there was another huge crater.
1 comment:
Sorry I couldn't post late night my computer broken down for some reason.
I dislike the way a man view upon a woman. We are not weaker than they are. Sometimes we may be more cautious about things, like what Zoe did. It wasn't that she was afraid, but the fact that it was for everyone's safety. Men think that if they can face death face to face then they are the strong courageous men that they are. To me that's plain stupid, because it's not only their life that they are putting in danger, but the lives of the rest of the group. Women can go head to head with death too, but we think before we act. Maybe men just act the way they are because of the way they think, how they are stronger and manly if they fight until the end and that death is not a problem. There's really nothing we can do to force it into a man that women are just as good as they are. The only thing we can do is prove to ourselves that we are just as good as them. As long as we know that we can do anything they can do, we don't need to explain ourselves.
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