1. They do fight in wars

  2. They're the ones that get burned and raped and pillaged by invading (and sometimes allied) forces

Fuck anyone who says only men suffer during war. I won't stand for that shit.

  • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I recommend reading the The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexievich for more stories about women warriors. They got screwed over after the war too, most of them were not given the same awards and praise that men received.

    Edit: One of my favorite stories is a one about an all-female Soviet infantry unit. This was during the early years of the war so the Red Army still faced a lot of supply issues. This unit was marching with many other male units in front and behind. Suddenly there were shouts of concern behind them "medic! We need medics up here! Somebody is bleeding up ahead!" You probably know where this is going, nobody was bleeding, at least not from any wounds. The women unit had just started having their periods on the march (I guess they were synced up or something) and decided just to take their pants off and bleed on the ground so they could stay on the march with the rest of the army. Badass shit. Incidentally the way the red army in 1941 dealt with this was to basically just give you a rag you stuffed in your pants, I'm pretty sure the same rags were used as socks lol

    Here is another cute one. A mixed Soviet tank crew (I think female tank driver and male commander and gunner) had successfully fought its way through 1944-5 and finally reached the Battle of Berlin. Again the crew fought bravely and professionally, scoring several German tank kills, and survived to see the Soviet flag raised over the burning Reichstag. The tank crew got out of their tank and were sitting on top celebrating their victory with the rest of the army. The woman driver looks over to see the gunner crying, and she asks him what's wrong. He looks at her and asks her to marry him, to which she says yes but then punches him in the face "for asking such a question in such a terrible place" and tells him he will have to ask again when they return to Russia. :soviet-bottom:

    • wrecker_vs_dracula [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I want to point out here that the red army used foot rags instead of socks. This was normal in that part of the world, and was even a point of pride. There’s a special way you wrap and tie them. It’s a whole thing.

      This is to say that using strips of fabric as socks, sometimes called “foot rags”, shouldn’t be looked at as evidence of “supply issues” in the red army. A fairly thick sanitary napkin could be folded from these long strips of fabric, but I’m not able to weigh in on their likely effectiveness as menstrual products.

    • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Incidentally the way the red army in 1941 dealt with this was to basically just give you a rag you stuffed in your pants, I’m pretty sure the same rags were used as socks lol

      Good way to get menstrual toxic shock syndrome tbh. Hope nobody died from that. I don't blame them btw. I know conditions were desperate.

      EDIT: i talked to some women in my household and they said I was wrong anyway lol. You only get toxic shock syndrome from tampons because that's how anaerobic (without air) bacteria forms. That's what kills people. A sock wouldn't do that I guess because there's still a gap with some air between you and the sock, as opposed to what happens with tampons. So the sock functions as a pad and you're not very likely to get toxic shock syndrome from pads.

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I dunno if this makes it better or not, but the socks the Soviets used were so used because they were easy to change and clean regularly, so presumably women using them as ad-hoc tampons could do that too.

        • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          i talked to some women in my household and they said I was wrong anyway lol. You only get toxic shock syndrome from tampons because that's how anaerobic (without air) bacteria forms. That's what kills people. A sock wouldn't do that I guess because there's still a gap with some air between you and the sock, as opposed to what happens with tampons. So the sock functions as a pad and you're not very likely to get toxic shock syndrome from pads.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Seems like a cool book, but I'm guessing there's at least 3-4 horrifying stories for each wholesome tank crew one, right?