The true motivations of supposed feminist helpers during WWI have always been suspect, by historians. Yes, Mary and others assisted, but only to repair the men and return them to the front so that women could continue to enjoy a life of privilege without responsibility.
--Source---- http://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm
Mary Borden, a Baltimore millionaire who set up a hospital unit at the front from 1914 to 1918, wrote: “Just as you send your clothes to the laundry and mend them when they come back, so we send our men to the trenches and mend them when they come back again. You send your socks … again and again just as many times as they will stand it. And then you throw them away. And we send our men to the war again and again … just until they are dead.”
2007-12-20 14:14:28 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
Sounds like an honest sentiment born of the futility and frustration of striving to save lives in a world at war, in a time when death was the norm and casualties were rotated through as fast as was practicable. You have to have been "there" to understand what it is that she is trying to say. Ask any nurse who we feel about the uselessness of trying to help others to regain their health when their very lives are considered to be little more than 'expendable'. I personally agree with what se had to say. I is a pity more people didn't feel as she did.
2007-12-20 18:06:40 · answer #1 · answered by Ashleigh 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) was instituted in 1939 for service in WWII (a ... Senior officers are required to have been awarded with the Legion d'Honeur . My dad served in the british army, and his battallion was awarded the Croix de Guerre medal. My dad has long passed and sadly his medal is also misplaced. Edgar must have. been an obvious candidate. and it remains a mystery . Like Laidlaw, Grimbaldston was also awarded the Croix de Guerre 1583 servicemen of WW1 buried in this cemetery of whom 1135 have not been identified. *Miles Romanus X Legio...dixit
2016-05-25 06:09:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That quote sounds more like she is fed up and depressed by the war and loss of life more than wanting all the men in the world dead.
It is a far leap to say that women enjoy war so men can die. Feminists are not men bashing, hating, vile women like you think.
Do you think living and working during a war gave women a life without privilege and responsibility? No, they worked just as much as the men and had many responsibilities.
Her award should not be returned. She was a brave woman who put her life on the line to help others. She couldn't help it if the men were sent back to the trenches. Wouldn't it have just been better to let them die so the women would be well rid of them? It was the military officials and generals who commanded the men back to trenches, not her.
2007-12-20 14:27:14 · answer #3 · answered by Liz 5 · 11⤊ 1⤋
As an Army wife - and therefore, by your fascinating logic, one of those women who are supposedly shipping my husband out to war so I can sit back and enjoy a privileged lifestyle (yeah, you got me, I'm thrilled that my husband is going out again after Christmas to get shot at or dodge IEDs) - your ridiculous supposition is insulting, strung together by the most specious of reasoning and beneath serious consideration.
If you seriously believe that about women who support the Armed Forces, you're either so immersed in self-pity that you've lost any perspective on the matter or you're simply not too bright.
I'm not a flag-waving Bushie, but I do support my husband and the thousands of people just like him, men and women, who are willing to fight wars they may not agree with because it's what they promised they would do. I wonder if you'd be fit to keep company with any of them.
Troll away, but know that your trolling (disguised as serious questioning) demonstrates more about you as a person than it does any of the people you're trying to rile up.
2007-12-20 19:42:09 · answer #4 · answered by Bellavita 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I think you are misunderstanding the emotion behind what she was saying. I don't think she was saying that she believes that men are dispensable. I think she's commenting on how sad it is that she spends her days healing men just so they can turn around and be sent back to fight some more. I doubt that she enjoyed watching this unfold. If you were to see the injuries she saw, the deaths...would it please you to save a life and see that life get taken away thereafter? I doubt it. Her comments are a reflection of her frustration and sadness...not a reflection of her agreeing with the way that it was. I'm sure she would have liked to have seen the war end...perhaps not seen it start to begin with. It must have been very difficult to do the kind of work she did. You seem to be implying that she wanted those soldiers to die...how reasonable is that assumption when she spent so much time healing them? Would she have spent so much of her own money on a hospital for these men if she cared not to see them live?
2007-12-20 14:45:24 · answer #5 · answered by It's Ms. Fusion if you're Nasty! 7 · 9⤊ 1⤋
As the first responder intimated, it seems that you've misinterpreted the quote. She was speaking about the horrors and indignity of war, and how the young men were objectified, made into little better than fighting automatons, patched up and sent back to the front until they were literally used to death. She was not condoning this, she was speaking against it. Apparently, in your zeal to defame women, you missed the point entirely, and the point of your source, which seems to applaud the effort of women and "feminists" during WWI (you did realize that your source is in direct contradiction to your initial statements, didn't you? You might want to watch that...some people actually read this stuff, insted of just taking YOUR word for it.)
2007-12-20 14:52:30 · answer #6 · answered by wendy g 7 · 8⤊ 1⤋
Immvirago is correct if you had any sense of irony you would know that this quote is Mary Borden's way of using satire and irony to demonstrate the injustices and inhumanities of war.
This is clearly a pacifist quote if I've ever heard one, perhaps you should take a literature class or something. Read a book also.
2007-12-20 14:59:06 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 9⤊ 2⤋
Mary Borden was a pacifist as well as a feminist. The quote you've provided sounds to me like her commentary on how human beings (men) are treated in a war. She sees them being used as cannon foder and their well-being is not considered as important as winning the war.
For someone who was so against war and still willing to help those who had to fight she seems doubly brave to me. She should keep the medal.
2007-12-20 14:26:44 · answer #8 · answered by lmmvirago 3 · 13⤊ 1⤋
Mary Borden was also a pacifist. You should do a little more research on your subject first, next time.
2007-12-20 14:55:56 · answer #9 · answered by Priscilla B 5 · 8⤊ 2⤋
Boy, Rob, I hope I never get as obsessed with anything as you are with feminism. I can only hope you can come to terms with it some day and have a chance to live some semblance of a normal life.
All the best of luck to you.
2007-12-20 14:58:10 · answer #10 · answered by moonspot318 5 · 10⤊ 2⤋