In a sharp departure from its traditional machismo advertising,
the Marines are now targeting readers of women’s magazines
like Shape and Self. Featuring photos of female marines, the ads include
messages such as, “True strength lies not in self, but in unity.” (The “pain is
weakness leaving the body” brand of marine recruiting remains prevalent in
men’s magazines.) Although clerical jobs in the Marine Corps have been open to
women since 1918, this is the first time the Marines have systemically geared
their recruitment efforts toward young women.
Let’s hope the Marines’ new platform of gender equality includes
serious efforts to fight military sexual harassment. According to a 2006
Defense Department report,
60 percent of enlisted women have experienced military sexual trauma and 23
percent have experienced military sexual assault. The branch with the
highest percentage of women reporting sexual assaults is (you guessed it) the
Marine Corps.
Drawing on its 2008 advertising budget of $157.4 million,
the Marines are also specifically targeting Latinos and Arab Americans. This
level of demographically oriented advertising is unprecedented in the Marines. With
the percentage of high school graduates willing to enlist dropping sharply each
year of the Iraq War, the Marines and other branches of the U.S. military have moved away from
the generalized recruitment practices of years passed.
This change in advertising underlies a dire situation facing
our military. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the
unsustainable demands on troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan,
General Richard A. Cody recently stated, “If unaddressed, this lack of balance
poses a significant risk to the all-volunteer force and degrades the Army’s
ability to make a timely response to other contingencies.”
When a four-star general makes a plea like this, our country
had better respond, and fast. But I don’t think record military spending in
chick mags was the response General Cody was hoping for.
Photo: New York Times
