Being Disrespectful and the Call for Respect

Kayla Williams, an independent minded female soldier, is serving in Iraq in her book Love My Rifle More Than You. To the reader Williams' attitude, throughout the book could act as either a guide or a roadblock for understanding the message she is trying to convey. Williams' writing gives the sense of superiority to both her readers and other soldiers. Although it is probably expected that her apparent superiority complex blocks her from reaching her audience however, Williams' writing disproves this. Her attitude is demonstrative of the fact that Williams is passionate about her story and that she very solemnly believes everything she is writing. Her condescending attitude does not detract from her story. Williams' attitude is additive to the storyline's ability to entertain.

Williams' brings her opinion on women in the military into full view right from the book's beginning. In order to keep the audience interested Williams establishes a 'love-hate' relationship with the reader early. Williams opens her book with a bold and outlandish statement. She talks about how she occasionally wakes up reminding herself that she is not a slut (Williams 13). Following this brash and captivating statement, Williams explains that in the military women are either bitches or sluts. The social rules of the military define a woman as a slut if she caves into a soldier's pursuit for intimacy. These same rules define a woman as a bitch if she chooses not to give in to a soldier (Williams 14).

This is what brings us to realize her dismay for military's objectification of women. However, Williams does not take a feminist view on the situation. She is genuinely upset that women are objectified because they are people, and not because she thinks that women are superior to men. She states that women are just as corruptible as men. She says that women are just as competent, and just as likely to make a mistake. Williams is telling her reader, very omnisciently, that women and men are equal, and so women obviously should not be treated as servants to men (Williams 15).

Williams uses her blunt attitude and her edgy writing to obtain respect and interest from the reader. Her harsh vocabulary and clear dismay for the military's current structure is a driver for the reader to keep reading. She writes in a way that allows her readers to forget they are reading a book, rather treating her words like gossip. The reader goes through the motions they would if they were reading a slanderous piece in People about their favorite celebrity. Her audience is most likely thinking "What a condescending bitch. . . let's keep reading".

One of the most qualifying factors in her book is that her writing is consistent with who she is. She writes with the same attitude that she behaves with. This is qualifying because in allowing her personality to seep into her writing she is preventing a "lost in translation" factor that would make her book non-realistic.

Williams is very clever in the way she writes her slander. She gives her issues with the military's structure and objectification situation context. Every complaint she has is backed by an event that happened during her tour in Iraq. Her first issue is the military's structure and the respect that is required of it. In cases where she is dealing with superior officers (e.g. Staff Sergeants Moss or Simmons) she does not adjust her air of superiority as would be expected, but rather maintains her complex and uses it as a metaphoric weapon to keep her superiors in line. For example, she used respect to move SSG Moss to tears. SSG Moss approaches Williams and says that she feels that their level of communication insufficient and too impersonal. Williams responds according to military standards (Yes sergeant, no sergeant etc.) and refuses to allow the conversation to become more personal. When Moss explicitly requests for Williams to be at ease, however Williams refuses to listen and reduces SSG Moss to tears. This situation stems from Williams' belief that SSG Moss should not have been her superior and so she resorts to mocking 'the system' in order to assert her superiority. Williams then goes on to say that a soldier should never cry in front of a subordinate, and a female soldier should especially bear this in mind.

Williams also lacks respect for the entire chain of command in itself. One night during dinner, Williams addresses a concern of hers with a superior officer. She states that she has noticed the soldiers are not being given Hillel MREs but that the supply depot has them. She asks that Hillel MREs be supplied to soldiers that request them (namely herself). She is denied on the precedent that no one soldier is entitled to special treatment. Feeling that this answer is inadequate, or even wrong, she disregards it and addresses her concern with the supply sergeant, who without question supplies her with Hillel MREs. In this instance she took her opinion and her desires and regarded them more highly than the orders of a superior officer.

This is nothing new however, throughout the book her condescending attitude is mostly directed toward the military and those she feels are responsible for the war in Iraq. Her writing really opens the eyes of the reader. The book shows the reader that the government is portraying the War in Iraq as being very successful, and they give the impression that soldiers are serving with happiness, and they are not having that hard of a time. Government propaganda is foundational to Williams writing and detrimental to any reader with a positive view of the war or the current U.S. government administration. Williams fights back by producing her individual form of propaganda. Williams prepares a list of items that she feels will accurately assist any soldiers recently called to duty to properly prepare for Iraq. The list consists of environmental examples such as, setting an annoying alarm, burning fecal matter for the proper Iraq fragrance, and pouring mud on one one's own body for an accurate sense on how you will feel in Iraq (Williams 64). A traditional soldier would be one with respect for the government they serve and could quite possibly agree with Williams, but of course they would put a positive spin on the list as a whole. A sensitive reader could see this list as insulting. Williams gives the impression that the current governmental propaganda disqualifies any rational person from being able to really understand what Iraq is like. In other words, she presents herself as having the idea that she feels that she is excessively strong and superior for being able to last in Iraq, and she feels that it is her duty to make it easier for the "weaker". She puts a very negative and emotionally traumatizing spin on being in Iraq, but her smug attitude also gives the impression that she looks back on it with the arrogance to say she was omniscient in Iraq, and nothing fazed her. Regardless of the underlying opinions, or the several ways to interpret this list's purpose, reading this list is mostly entertaining and even funny. In essence, Williams is doing an incredible job of stating raw fact and still keeps the reader entertained. Her attitude, apparent to any reader, allows the reader to feel the dismay that she does. It is without a doubt that her condescending attitude does not remove anything from her story, its ability to entertain is simply an addition to it.

Kayla Williams, an independent minded female soldier, is rude, demeaning and borderline feminist. As a writer she is arrogant, and does a poor job of universalizing her writing, or making it politically correct so as not to offend any single reader. Her inability to do as much has resulted in one of the greatest non-fictional accounts on the Iraq War. Her smugness and unreasonable superiority complex is entertaining and humorous and allows a reader to establish a "love-hate" relationship with both Williams and her work. Williams is gifted in that she does not pretend that she is not condescending. This is a buttress because Williams, unlike other authors, uses her attitude to carry the story. Instead of trying to hide her attitude (which would without question bore or infuriate a reader) she uses it as a source of entertainment. Williams' attitude is additive to the storyline's ability to entertain.

Works Cited

Williams, Kayla. Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female In The U.S. Army. 1st. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2005.