For The Boys

[sdimock]

Slim,

I was careful not to express an opinion one way or the other about Kays post.

I agree that,

"Kay has said that she is here, at the expressed invitation of Mike B, for reasons other than arguing over the current set of hot topics.

When the owner of the house invites a guest over it is ungentlemanly to insult the guest because you don‘t like his or her clothes, ideas or thoughts."

And I made referance to that when I said that

"I cann‘t say the treatment of the starter of this thread or the treatment of one of the members with a dissenting opinion was handled in a professional manor."

She is the starter of this thread and was not treated in a professional manner by Treehugger.

Likewise Treehugger is not beeing treated in a professional manner by some others in this thread.

"Kay is providing an important and time honoured service to the members of the CF."

Thats your opinion and your entitled to it.

"And until you‘ve been in some godforsaken ****hole for 6 months and felt what it was like I wouldn‘t start preaching!"

You don‘t know where I‘ve been and what I‘ve done in my 40 odd years of life so you can stow that comment.

I‘ll continue to preach professionalism thank you very much.

"You, too, can grow up and mind your manners."

 

[csura2]

I‘m just wondering how professional all of you boys would think it was if tree hugger or I, or another female CF member would throw pictures up of herself on this forum looking equally "klassy and sassy"? Perhaps, if it‘s such a morale booster, all of the female CF members serving overseas should just start bearing their breasts and donning red lipstick to make "the boys" happy.

Can none of you modern, educated, military men see how this sort of thing could make some people uncomfortable or offended, particularly your female co-workers?

Don‘t get me wrong, I could care less about Kay‘s pictures being on the forum. What does bother me is how hard of a time you all are giving tree hugger for simply expressing her dissatisfaction with the objectification of the female body in such an arcane way. This is a forum afterall.

I‘m fairly new to this forum, so because of the way you guys have treated tree hugger (a loyal and higly rated member) for expressing her opinions, I too am wondering what kind of backlash I will receive for speaking up too.

 

[Slim]

Originally posted by sdimock:
[qb] Slim,
You don‘t know where I‘ve been and what I‘ve done in my 40 odd years of life so you can stow that comment.
[/qb]

If you‘ve been around the service for that long then demonstraight some of this maturity you claim and act like a gentleman and a soldier.

I won‘t take back any of my statements to either of you as you both deserve every word I said.

Differences of opinion are also fine but there is a time and place!


Slim

 

[Slim]

Originally posted by EMEgirl:
[qb]

I‘m fairly new to this forum, so because of the way you guys have treated tree hugger (a loyal and higly rated member) for expressing her opinions, I too am wondering what kind of backlash I will receive for speaking up too. [/qb]

None if you are reasonable, polite and express well thought out points.

Slim

 

[Harris]

Originally posted by EMEgirl:
[qb] I‘m just wondering how professional all of you boys would think it was if tree hugger or I, or another female CF member would throw pictures up of herself on this forum looking equally "klassy and sassy"? Perhaps, if it‘s such a morale booster, all of the female CF members serving overseas should just start bearing their breasts and donning red lipstick to make "the boys" happy. [/qb]

To be honest, go for it. I wouldn‘t have any problem with that. As long as nudity isn‘t involved, nor spam, then by all means go ahead.

 

[Harris]

Originally posted by tree hugger:
[qb] I did not change the content of my posts. Enough said. [/qb]

If that is the case then what does this mean?

Originally posted by tree hugger:
[qb] Just seemed to be a ditsy thing to do. You boys are welcoming enough, don‘t you think? Not enough room on the welcoming wagon for me!

[ 2004-04-13, 16:18: Message edited by: tree hugger ] [/qb]

 

[tree hugger]

grammer edit

 

[Harris]

OK. I‘ll buy that. Been there done that too.
Really though, I‘m not trying to rattle your chain, but I for one am tired of the whole "If it‘s not politically correct, then don‘t say/do it." that some people seem to be preaching. If somone wants to post pictures of themselves staring off into space, then so be it, as long as they are not breaking the rules Mike has set for these things. Are some people offended by the pin-up photo‘s? Yes. Then my suggestion is don‘t go look at them. I‘m offended by people who smoke in public places. Therefore I don‘t go to places where people are smoking. I certanly don‘t state my opinion for all to hear and say how dare they smoke. It‘s a personal choice and I only wish more people would think of something good to say vice something unkind when presented with a situation where things are not going the way they would like. As a wise man once said, "If you can‘t say something nice, don‘t say anything at all."

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Treehugger,
You‘re right. I was thinking of your other self righteous one.

 

[Spr.Earl]

Am I living in the Victorian Era?
Come on I found the photos tasteful and refreshing compared to what we see today.

To tree hugger and emegirl,when you go out shopping for cloths don‘t you buy the ones that look good and to show off your physical attributes to compete against other females and to catch the male eye?

The human male is a visual animal and has been for 1,000‘s of years and will be for 1,000‘s to come and we like looking at the female body as it‘s the closest thing to perfection in structural Engineering.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Kay;

Thanks for the thoughtful gesture, the pictures have a very professional quality to them.

I would give treehugger a hug as I get the feeling she sorely needs one, but having reached the vaunted heights of Officer Cadet, she is just too unapproachable, being all important and stuff.

As for "x-rating", I find the imagination is often more titillating than revealing everything. The biggest sex organ we have is the brain.

Oh, and royal highland fusilier - next time you lock up a thread because there is already a similar topic going on, how about providing a link to that other topic so we don‘t have to search ****‘s half acre to find it? Just a suggestion.

Good luck, Kay, and let us know if hard copies of the calendar will ever be available. Off to look at your website now, perhaps the answers I seek will be there.

For what it is worth, treehugger, check out CWAC recruiting posters from the 1940s, or come to think of it, check out recruiting posters now - they tend to pick the most attractive people (male and female) to put on them, in order to "sell" the product. It‘s nothing new and certainly nothing shameful. And not everyone has to join up at the CFRC in order to help out. From each according to their gifts...

Would you tell a little old lady knitting socks to go sign up instead?

 

[winchable]

Yeah it‘s either that or we stare at our own hairy shapeless body.

I thought these photos were almost a return to the sexual reserve of another era gone by, and were an improvement on some of the Raunch you get today. (bad rap videos, X-Tina, etc.)

It‘s not something I would bring to church, but it‘s not something I wouldn‘t hesitate to pin up in my house if I still lived with my parents.

All from the mouth of a Male of course.
But there are plenty of valid arguments from the other perspective;
So before this thread becomes a pile-on flame war, I suggest everyone agrees to disagree right now becuase this kind of argument is about as productive as the kind you can have over religion etc.

 

[bossi]

This is interesting.
A civilian posts some pix for "the boys", and then somebody is rude to her (what a nice way to say "thanks for your thoughtful, caring, patriotic donation to troop morale" ... NOT - for your edification; when we received Christmas packages in Kabul we didn‘t complain if we received something we didn‘t like, the non-Christian Canadians didn‘t flame the donations - the gift was accepted in the spirit it was intended).

It‘s even more interesting when you compare the rudeness in this thread to the tone in the thread on gay marriages - somehow, most people there have kept a civil tongue in their head while discussing another emotionally-charged issue (ah, but there‘s the key, isn‘t it? "Discussion of an emotionally-charged issue" ... and apparently some people have let their emotions get the better of them ... or should I say, have brought out the worst in them ... ?)

Finally, a small personal comment:
Six months in a filthy environment, nine and a half time zones away from your child, sleeping in a tent, lying on a rifle at night, having to wear body armour for every trip outside the wire, and not knowing if the next land mine/incoming missile/suicide bomber has your name on it ... that‘s quite stressful.
It‘s even more stressful when you realise you don‘t have a partner at home waiting for you - frankly, it hurts - it hurts a he11 of a lot.

Silvia Pecota understood this (an incredibly talented photographer with the Toronto Sun), and created several postcards/pin-ups for the troops on Op APOLLO, PALLADIUM, and ATHENA - it‘s art, it‘s beaufiful, and it‘s appreciated by those for whom it was intended:
Pecota Salute To The Troops

Pecota home page

So, if a lonely soldier enjoys the company of a pin-up, God bless him or her (it just might be the last thing they see before they die).

Tree-hugger: I hope your military career is short and painful - you definitely don‘t have what it takes in the "class" department, loser.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

marcus,
You silver tongued devil

 

[KlassyKay]

WOW....the number of private messages and emails that have come from all of you today is touching, and I appreciate each and every one of them (including one from tree hugger - she stepped up to the plate and tried to right this wrong in a very classy way so boys, everyone should just *step down* from the plate and put an end to the hostilities!)

I think what I find most entertaining about some of the comments in this thread, tho, is how my photos could offend anyone! In my opening statment, I tried very succinctly to offer a description of what you‘d find if you followed the link to the *For The Boys* photo album - that being Pin-Ups!! If you like pin-ups, then you‘d probably go take a peek. If you don‘t like pin-ups, then why would you follow the link? I don‘t like spiders, for example, even tho there are millions of threads and websites dedicated to spiders -- I simply choose not to visit them.

And certainly, Chatelaine has offered as provocative images on their covers as is seen in my dedications!

Over many months, I have had the pleasure of communicating with hundreds and hundreds of troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and abroad, during times when a *hello* from someone, anyone, made all the difference in the world. In the past month alone on phone duty (I call it phone duty but it‘s actually a communication line I‘ve set up with some majors, colonel‘s etc., currently on tour abroad), we‘ve alleviated 3 suicides (and one was Canadian). I won‘t begin to take credit for that but I was there for them as a shoulder when they needed it.....and today, they are alive.

That men and woman have to go to war is terrible, bbut often times necessary. And the stories that I‘ve heard are equally terrible. Active combat is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, and while I am simply not the type to enlist, I will applaud those that do choose to enlist and will offer support whenever I can. That I choose to do it in stockings and high-heels and red lips is my decision. I am not inventing the wheel here.....Pin Up support for the troops has been around for a while, and continues because the troops appreciate it.

My posts were not intended to offend any of the female soldiers out there, and in fact, were I a male, I would most likely post Morale Pics for them too!! Being the human animal that we all are, regardless of how we may renounce it, we all take pleasure in pretty things. There is no deeply-hidden agenda or psyche-delving purpose to my dedications other than to bring pleasure and maybe a few smiles

I celebrate being a woman in many different forms, one of them is my Pin-Ups. I do not condem those women who chose to celebrate in hiking boots and t-shirts, so I would ask that you not condem mine.

(whew!)

Now, to those of you wanting the Easter Calendar, just send me an email with your address and I‘ll mail it out to you - sealed with a Kiss! ;-)

I would normally end with *stay sassy sweeties* but I think in this case, I‘ll just say *stay pleasant* and we‘ll work on the sassiness later!

Kisses
Kay xoxo

 

[brin11]

Just a few short comments:

While, as a female, I certainly have misgivings about seeing this type of thing posted here, I have learned to leave certain battles alone. I realize, as I‘ve stated before, that guys enjoy this sort of thing and that mostly it does no harm. That‘s reality. It is something I‘ve railed against my whole life though so when I see comments from people like tree hugger I can certainly sympathize. And bossi, since many posters here have stated that if you don‘t wish to see such pictures then don‘t go there, perhaps posting one of them in plain view might not be the best idea. Even the original poster gave us a link.

I don‘t have a problem with them being on this site, look at them if you wish.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

tree hugger has like 23 posts and a rating of 2 so I wouldn‘t call that a respectful rating or necessarily a productive member.

 

[Korus]

Over many months, I have had the pleasure of communicating with hundreds and hundreds of troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and abroad, during times when a *hello* from someone, anyone, made all the difference in the world. In the past month alone on phone duty (I call it phone duty but it‘s actually a communication line I‘ve set up with some majors, colonel‘s etc., currently on tour abroad), we‘ve alleviated 3 suicides (and one was Canadian). I won‘t begin to take credit for that but I was there for them as a shoulder when they needed it.....and today, they are alive.

And for that we salute you.

 

[Slim]

Originally posted by KlassyKay:
[qb]
Over many months, I have had the pleasure of communicating with hundreds and hundreds of troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and abroad, during times when a *hello* from someone, anyone, made all the difference in the world. [/qb]

Kay

I sent you a PM saying much the same thing...Now I‘ll say it for all to read here. What you are doing...talking and listening to the troops...is just as important for them, sometimes, as what they themselves do for others.

If we could look past the "pretty-girl" aspect of the situation and see someone (like yourself) trying to help, in an age when Canada really doen‘t pay alot of attention to its own military. When troops come home and have to suffer verbal abuse from some of our less-than-well informed citizens after going through six or seven months of **** (see Bossi‘s post)only to be largely ignored by their own government and its members.

To have someone stand up and offer to help...even just a friendly chat...helps to no end! And you would be (and are ) making a difference. And no one ever said that your chats are solely restricted to men!

As far as I‘m concerned you can carry on even should you choose to wear jeans and a sweatshirt...or even a touque, ski boots and a snow suit.

Soldier on Kay

Slim

 

[Jarnhamar]

ouch. I‘d figure were all adults and in our time in the army we‘ve seen our share of nudity and something as trivial and harmless as this wouldnt but too many. I get a laugh when something like this ‘offends‘ someone but thats only because i view it as harmless. Like really, have you seen whats going on in the world? Please dont swear it makes me upset. Bleh
I think tree hugger may have over reacted a little (Well a lot IMHO)and might have regret what she said but i think anyone would agree she sure as heck took a pounding over it. Not to mention a few unprofessional fired in her direction.

Then again someone who sleeps under their bed to avoid work parties might not be the best person to comment on whats professional and whats not
I do think it serves as a good example that to survive in the army you need to relax and just because you take offense at something it doesnt mean thats how it was intended and you might want to think twice before geting rightious.