Katy Perry Slammed For Marine Video ‘Part of Me’

 by Linda Franklin

 

Katy Perry says ” ‘Part of Me’ is one of the most aggressive videos I have ever made”.  The video for the song, which is about a painful break-up, is a celebration of female empowerment and an ‘affirmation of strength. When she wanted to get tough for her latest release, the young singer picked up an M-16 and trained with actual Marines at Camp Pendleton.

Naomi Wolf does not agree with Ms. Perry sentiments.  Ms.Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, says the images of the singer dressed as a soldier ‘glorify violence’ and has called for a boycott of her music.  She added, “the video is a total piece of propaganda for the Marines.”  

Hollywood publicist Angie Meyer said: ‘Naomi Wolf is a living, breathing contradiction. Her anti-military sentiments against the men and women fighting to defend the freedoms she exercises regularly, speech and protest, is absurd and disturbingly disgraceful.

Glenn Selig, from The Publicity Agency, said Miss Wolf’s attack had backfired.

‘In her efforts to boycott the video Naomi Wolf has brought more attention to it,’ he said.

‘Without her comments, most people would clearly have seen the military simply as a metaphor and not as an attempt by Katy Perry to glamorise the military or war. 

‘It’s hard to believe that Naomi Wolf’s view of the video will resonate with the public at large because most people will view her comments as completely absurd and a ridiculous attempt to make a big deal out of nothing.’

 

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration to civilian life.

Hiring Heroes on The Intrepid – My Experience

by Linda Franklin

On Wednesday I spent 3 hours on The Intrepid talking to people attending NBC’s Hiring Our Heroes event.  I spoke to veterans and also many of the employees there representing Corporate America. Thanks to NBC and The Chamber of Commerce for their efforts in helping our deserving heroes. 

Ok, having said that, I have to tell you I was disappointed in the way many of our country’s largest corporations handled this effort.  Yes, they were there handing out their promotional material but I wonder how many job seekers got a head start in getting the jobs they need so badly? One homeless woman vet I talked to was seeking a job as a driver.  She was asked lots of questions about her experience and skills and then bluntly told “we can’t use you in our company”.  

As I made my way from table to table on the huge aircraft carrier, I asked the reps of these different company’s what specifically they were doing for female veterans.  Many of them didn’t have an answer. The party line was tell them to go to our website and check out our job boards and fill out an online application.  Really?  Did we really need to be there to hear those profound words?

Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans leave the active-duty military only to find that their skills are not understood by civilian employers.  Right now the unemployment rate for returning veterans is north of 17%.  

More than a third of employers surveyed by Military.com were unaware that under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), many of the troops still experience employment discrimination because of their military service. 

So yes, Corporate America is on this Hire Our Vets bandwagon, but how many are really following through in the best way for our vets?  It sure looks good for their corporate image to be supporting this cause, but it takes more than a smile and handing out a brochure to fix this problem.

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration to civilian life.

Life Leadership: If you Poke a Pin in It

By Sandra Beck 

Recently I had acupuncture done for my headaches. I have a lot of them and you can pretty much set your watch by them on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Those are my show days and high stress for me around my company, kids and social obligations. 

Mitra my doctor said to me that she sticks needles into these energy channels and interrupts them so the make new pathways and free up the meridian or something like that. I didn’t really understand the physiology but I got the point- literally. 

When we interrupt a pattern or a habit – either through change or sticking a needle in a meridian we force ourselves to do things a little bit differently.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results I needed to stick a pin in my life if I was every going to get out from under these headaches. 

So this week I moved my schedule around and lightened my load on Monday and Tuesday.  I still got a headache both days but they weren’t the debilitating ragers from the past.  I am going to continue to stick more pins into my schedule and break up the channels that don’t serve me.  It’s worth a try, because I was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  No more insanity. 

Sandra Beck is the host of Military Mom Talk Radio and the single mother of two boys ages 5 and 8. She is an author, internet brand strategist. She has worked with the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Army for over 20 years and is passionate about helping women lead their families successfully the specific challenges of military life.

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration to civilian life.

Karilyn Bales Blogs About The Anguish Of A Military Spouse

by Linda Franklin

Karilyn Bales wrote a blog about her daily life as a military spouse.  She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion.

But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments.

“Bob left for Iraq this morning,” she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. “Quincy slept in our bed last night.”

She described surprise phone calls and solo doctor’s appointments, attempts to clean the house while Sergeant Bales was gone and the “bad dreams” she woke from after a nap on the day he left in 2009

Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad.

To read more check out the front page article in Sunday’s New York Times.

My heart goes out to Karilyn and all the militaryspouses who are left behind with so much on their plates to deal with.

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration to civilian life.

Sexual Assault – Women Must Break Their Silence

by Fuzzy Manning  

Sexual assault has affected our global society for well over 10,000 years. We allow predators to roam free in broad daylight and refuse to take any action to curtail their behavior. Quite often when a part of our society is in peril we rush to mend them, because it has a detrimental effect on the whole. Sadly, sexual assault, sexual harassment, physical abuse, and neglect against girls and women doesn’t even get a nod. 

“We are the only animal on the planet that repeatedly abuses and sexually assaults the smaller and weaker of the species for fun or sport. We have become a predatory global society that isn’t willing to manage predatory behavior towards girls and women.” 

Why are sexual assault and the other predatory behaviors toward girls and women allowed to exist in an information rich global society? Listed below are some facts and a possible approach toward solutions to ending sexual assault. 

• One in five women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
• Sexual violence is a global pandemic that has “NO” barriers.
• Sexual violence is a devastating crime where self-esteem, self-worth, trust and confidence are destroyed. Physical and mental health complications arise and can continue throughout the victim’s life. The capacity to hold down a job, support oneself and contribute productively to society is all undermined. Quality of life, health and happiness, autonomy and security are all damaged by sexual violence.
• Sexual violence devastates individuals, families and communities. Distrust and fear permeates our communities and defines how members live amongst each other. We create a lesser community and a lesser society for all of us to live in.
• Sexual violence is a travesty against the fundamental and inalienable Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Sexual violence against women reflects fundamental gender inequality and perpetuates it. A culture that doesn’t value a woman’s voice will have trouble respecting a woman’s right to choose who or what she will engage in.
• Violence against women cost theUSpublic over $200 Billion annually.
• Sexual violence is less likely to be reported, to be prosecuted, and to lead to conviction than other crimes. A crime which can’t be successfully prosecuted is, in effect, a “Non-Crime”. Society tacitly condones a “non-crime” as a crime with no punishment.
• Sexual violence is an act of terrorism intended to create fear, perpetuate women’s vulnerability, and therefore their inferiority
• We can end sexual violence through real education about women’s full and equal rights, respectful relationships, and real consequences for criminal behavior. 

To end this barbaric crime, victims must break their silence to bring these senseless assaults to an end. We have to believe as a society that we will no longer tolerate this behavior. Sexual assault has no place in our families, communities, and nation. :

Fuzzy Manning – Clinician, Therapist, Radio Show Host, & Speaker

 

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration back into civilian life

Sexual Assault – The Secret Pandemic

by Linda Franklin

In the latest string of shocking sex assault allegations in the military, eight female Marines stationed at the U.S. Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., one of the country’s most prestigious bases, filed a lawsuit claiming U.S. military officers tolerate a ‘staggering’ level of sexual assaults.

Lt Ariana Klay and Lt Elle Helmer both claim they were raped.  In addition, little or no justice followed the alleged incidents, and their fellow Marines ridiculed them for being ‘sluts’ and ‘walking mattresses.’

One of the plaintiffs in the case is Lt Ariana Klay, who graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Academy, joined the Marine Corps, and went on to serve in Iraq, claims that her rapists threatened to kill her and said they wanted to humiliate her.

One Marine in charge of filing complains posted a supposedly-satirical ‘Hurt Feelings Report’ to their Facebook page, with reasons for filing including ‘I am a cry baby’ and ‘I want my mommy’.

The lawsuit is the latest in an alarming number of sexual assault allegations and estimation by secretary of Defence Leon Panetta that more than 19,000 assaults annually occur within the ranks.

Lt Klay and Lt Helmer first spoke publically about their stories in The Invisible War, a documentary slated to be released this spring that looks into the alarming amount of sexual assaults and rapes within ranks.

It’s time for women in the military to be heard!!  It’s time to clean house and for justice to be served!. 

For more on this story and The Today show video click here.
Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration back into civilian life

Life Leadership: Stale Doesn’t Work

By Sandra Beck 

Recently I found this great brownie recipe online – the good kind from scratch where you shave the chocolate into bits and mix the ingredients from their original source, not from a boxed package. 

I was so excited and since I had a lot of wonderful chocolate left over from the holidays I made a massive batch filling up 6 pans thinking I would share them with neighbors, family and friends.  I used this huge 5 pound bag of flour that I had removed from my mom’s house after she died. I didn’t check the date.  The flour was years old but I didn’t know that because the packaging was unopened. 

The brownies came out like bricks.  So bad I had to soak the pans just to clean them.  They never rose to the occasion and the flour was stale.  I stood there in the kitchen so frustrated until I thought about the lesson here. Sure, use fresh ingredients got that.  But for us as women it goes deeper than that.  

How can we expect to rise to the occasion when we are the same old stale self?  I realized with the brownie bricks that I was stuck in some of my old ways and if I expected my life to rise to the occasion I would need to use a fresh me and not the same old stale me.  I never did make any more brownies because the fresh me doesn’t want to get fat…lol…but I do show up fresh everyday so I can rise to the occasion. 

Sandra Beck is the host of Military Mom Talk Radio and the single mother of two boys ages 5 and 8. She is an author, internet brand strategist. She has worked with the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Army for over 20 years and is passionate about helping women lead their families successfully the specific challenges of military life.

Shining Service Worldwide is a charitable organization that supports all women who are part of the military family.  Our goal is successful re-integration back into civilian life.