2003-04-05 9:16 p.m.

Spunky Is A Dog, Not A Soldier

Some women can't stand the word "bitch." Others are deeply offended when they hear the word "cunt." There's another word that completely sets me off, and I heard it again recently in the news coverage of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's capture and rescue in Iraq.

This article, written about recently by my diary buddy EHAdams, gives some of the earlier reports of what happened. A supply clerk, Pfc. Lynch fought back against Iraqi forces when her ordnance company was ambushed. Initial reports said she "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23." And it was also reported that she was finally captured by being stabbed; the gunshot wounds weren't enough to get her to give up her position and be captured as a POW. (Later reports said she did not have gunshot or stab wounds but implied she may have been tortured while being held prisoner.)

And here's where that word comes in.

Pfc. Lynch and her fight against the ambushing forces were hailed by Sen. Pat Roberts, but not as being brave or courageous or even patriotic. "Talk about spunk!" the senator declared. "She just persevered. It takes that and a tremendous faith that your country is going to come and get you."

Several papers paraphrase statements from her cousin, her kindergarten teacher and other friends and neighbors as referring to her "spunk," without actually quoting anyone using that word. Her brother refers to "training and emotional strength and determination," which the Baltimore Sun paraphrases as "spunk ".

The Iraqi lawyer who told the Americans where she was being held? Heroic and brave. Her captors "underestimated American resolve" -- not Pfc. Lynch's resolve, but that of the special forces who got her out of Iraq. Lynch herself is described in one article as gazing "with wide eyes over an American flag" as she was unloaded from a plane on a gurney, and as wondering when the army would come to save her -- as if she weren't a soldier but some 21st century princess waiting to be rescued from a tower. And while some stories do call her brave, you can bet that if Pfc. Lynch had been a male soldier, the word "spunk" never would have come up.

"Spunk" is bravery miniaturized, fetishized and trivialized. Bravery is to spunk what classic Greek statuary is to a Precious Moments figurine. America can't quite wrap its brain around the idea of women in combat, and many are clearly not yet ready to accept that women can be brave.

Just to show you what I mean, here are a few other things that are "spunky":

Is it any wonder I'd rather be called a bitch?

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