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Dolls and GIs


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private panda

I reenact WW2 american and vietnam ( both sides). I'm trying to get my girlfriend involved, but can't seem to find a good getup for her for WW2.

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USO hostess or USO performer.Rosie the Riviter/ship/airplane/factory worker.WASP,WAVE, Marine,SPAR,Public Heath Service,Doughtnut Dollies,Navy Nurs Corps etc.Many women were in training capacities during the war.I have seen pictures of them operating link trainers and doing observer and spotters classes too.Check out the site Blitzkrieg Baby

 

Blitzkrieg Baby

 

RD

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Dude, just say no. If she really wants to be involved then she needs to get herself involved. Taking her along just to wear the clothes and look pretty is really a drag. The wrong female can just suck the enjoyment out of the air. Here is what I found out with various girlfriends etc along with re-enactments:

Whine! its cold/hot/windy

Whine! these clothes are uncomfortable

Whine! I'm not going to sleep in a tent, I need a hotel I don't care if its 15 miles into town

Whine! I'm bored, you get to do stuff

Whine! I don't get along with any of the other wives/Gfs

And from your re-enacting buddies:

Hey Mac, Sure you don't want to hit the town tonight?

Hey Mac, We waited for you as long as we could but I guess you had to take care of her and couldn't go in the field.

Hey Mac, We had a great time after you left to go to the hotel, The Germans/VC/Chinese/Japanese attacked and all hell broke loose, best trigger time we had all weekend!

 

Its a rare female who can re-enact on her own terms and if you really have one, then good on ya. But for your sake if you don't , just say no.

T. Bowers

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Dude, just say no. If she really wants to be involved then she needs to get herself involved. Taking her along just to wear the clothes and look pretty is really a drag. The wrong female can just suck the enjoyment out of the air. Here is what I found out with various girlfriends etc along with re-enactments:

Whine! its cold/hot/windy

Whine! these clothes are uncomfortable

Whine! I'm not going to sleep in a tent, I need a hotel I don't care if its 15 miles into town

Whine! I'm bored, you get to do stuff

Whine! I don't get along with any of the other wives/Gfs

And from your re-enacting buddies:

Hey Mac, Sure you don't want to hit the town tonight?

Hey Mac, We waited for you as long as we could but I guess you had to take care of her and couldn't go in the field.

Hey Mac, We had a great time after you left to go to the hotel, The Germans/VC/Chinese/Japanese attacked and all hell broke loose, best trigger time we had all weekend!

 

Its a rare female who can re-enact on her own terms and if you really have one, then good on ya. But for your sake if you don't , just say no.

T. Bowers

 

This plus 1000

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It is a tough call.....

 

All depends on the type of woman you have. My wife portrays a french resistance fighter. She dose not like the tactical events, so >gasp< dose not come to them... Most of the display events she comes to, puts up a really good display and mans (gender neutral term) our units extensive weapons display wile the rest of the unit goes to get shot at.

A lot of women are turned off by the fact that there is only a porta potty and that is a bonus. And that running water is out of a metal 5 gal. can... And food, well......

 

I guess it all comes down to how she likes dirt and glorified camping.

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Hardcore re-enacted WWII with my wife for about two years. She liked it at first and then her interest dropped off. I don't blame her as its just not her thing. She likes the era and she likes re-enacting she just doesn't LIKE re-enacting. Now, today, if the event is close (a few hours) she will come out with our daughter and par-take in the USO dance, etc. in civilian dress (and nothing is finer than an attractive woman in 40's dress!) At air shows she has a flight suit and portrays a WASP. For an event far away from home, if my family comes, they stay in a hotel while I re-enact.. Sometimes I will stay with them depending on the event and sometimes I stay in the field. The important thing is that they "understand" that I may be busy and to not expect me to be at their beck and call. I do manage to find time to spend with them but...

 

I will say that I enjoy re-enacting by myself but I also enjoy it when they are along. It adds another demention.

 

One last thing...have her find the impression she likes and help her get the proper dress. My wife loved the WASPS so thats what she did. It even got her collecting WASP items (now there's a cheap area of the hobby!!!!!!!NOT!!!!)

 

Steve

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If she is really motivated, then by all means, she has every right to explore her history and perhaps become a re-enactor. In fact I support women in re-enacting. But, the original thread was concerning a young man "trying" to get his Girlfriend into re-enacting, and that's why I threw up the caution flag. Re-enacting is not for everyone, male or female and in fact you have to be darn motivated just to give it a try. Without that motivation it can be a real drag. I've seen it both ways and I just wanted him to consider that he may have to live with some tantrums at events. And that his buddies will look at her like Yoko Ono at at Beatles convention.

In general, I dislike the way most women choose to participate at events. I've been to a few CW and Rev War events that seem to have more women and children camp followers than soldiers. Events, at least in those time periods seem to be increasingly more about being family friendly and less about the war. Things like partisans in WWII can really be campy and just seem to be an excuse to give the girl a gun. I asked one once "why partisan?" and she didn't even know what it meant! I always thought that for WWI and WWII the perfect impression for women and kids would be refugee,walking through the battle or trying to save their belongings etc. As for the traditional WWII roles for female re-enactors (WACs WAVEs Nurses etc) these should be tailored to the event and not intrude on any timeline or scenario being presented.

Just my opinion

been there done that

T. Bowers

PS. I should also acknowledge up front that the women serving today and yesterday in all capacities have my greatest respect and admiration. They do a hard job and do it with class. I seek to seperate re-enacting from actual service, two completely different things.

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private panda

My girlfriend is the kind of girl who likes to go to the firing range, then hunting, and then go cook. In that order. Dirt and cold don't phase her. I meant to ask what would work best for both Europe and the homefront. And when she wants to shoot stuff, I already got her black pjs and a bunch of chicom grenades for our vietcong act.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I fully agree with HBTcoverall's, and also whatever you do DO NOT FOIST HER OFF ON OTHER WOMEN IN THE HOBBY.

 

I have a series of steps I go through when asked by a guy to help his significant other out. I typically start by sending an e-mail asking what impression the women is looking for, if she has no idea I recommend the book "Women in World War Two" by Doris Weatherford. I always ask to start communicating with the woman directly, if this doesn't happen then I know he wants her to be more involved then she wants to be. It doesn't bother me that some women wish to be far less involved in this hobby then I am. I have helped women put together very nice outfits just to attend dances in and I've helped women pull together full impressions. I just need to know what they want so I can best assist them.

 

If a woman does start communicating with me and says she wants to be more involved, we have a long conversation about what re-enacting is actually like vs. what her S.O. may have told her and what preconceived notions she might have. After this conversation I generally have a very good idea of how serious a woman is about this hobby and can guide her appropriately. The next step is research, I give a girl a stack of titles to choose from and start reading. I also always recommend a woman assemble a civilian impression first. This way if she gets to her first event and hates it, she won't have the money sunk into it that a proper military impression requires.

 

-Sarah

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I agree with Sarah, however, it sounds like your girlfriend is not the type to dress civilian and sit on the sidelines. Further, we should clarify here what type of event(s) you are talking about. Most women reenactors, unless they choose to portray a man and equip themselves as such, do not attend tacticals or private events. Men's groups have different rules and regulations regarding tactical battles, with some being more strict and others less strict than public events. Some feel since they are out of the public eye, authenticity should be relaxed. Others want to recreate history in their tacticals, and be as true to history as possible, and remove every reminder that we are not in the middle of WWII. Two of our good friends are a husband and wife team who reenact together, and also own a militaria reenactor supply company- Wephaus. Lauren reenacts as a german male soldier, and is a darned good one, at that! She is also a co-founder of a regional reenactor group, and still manages to attend lots of tacticals. She loves it, but then, she is definitely the exception to the rule. I personally do living history, and battle reenacting is not my thing- I love the history, talking to the public and the veterans, and teaching about what women actually accomplished during WWII- which was quite alot!

So...first decide if you want her to attend tacticals and/or public events. Second- does she want to participate in the battle, or is she interested in the living history side? If she's looking to "rough it" with the guys and wants to shoot a weapon, then she needs to be looking at a man's impression.

 

Just my two cents worth!

 

-Kathryne

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There are several women's impressions that will allow for a woman to participate in a private event or tactical:

 

1)The over all commanding officer is generally stationary and could use a staff WAC

2)When a tactical is done well ANC members can be utilized in a rear area to care for the "wounded"

3)War Correspondents moved into forward areas frequently getting themselves in trouble even

4)Resistance is an impression that has been villified because it's done badly so often but if a woman wanted to do the research and put the effort into it that could also be an option

5)There is also a displaced person or refugee impression to be considered

 

My unit does not allow women to participate as men. We consider it disrespectful to the women who served. It is also not well received in the WW2 re-enacting community.

 

-Sarah

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There are several women's impressions that will allow for a woman to participate in a private event or tactical:

 

1)The over all commanding officer is generally stationary and could use a staff WAC

2)When a tactical is done well ANC members can be utilized in a rear area to care for the "wounded"

3)War Correspondents moved into forward areas frequently getting themselves in trouble even

4)Resistance is an impression that has been villified because it's done badly so often but if a woman wanted to do the research and put the effort into it that could also be an option

5)There is also a displaced person or refugee impression to be considered

 

My unit does not allow women to participate as men. We consider it disrespectful to the women who served. It is also not well received in the WW2 re-enacting community.

 

-Sarah

 

 

In the United States Civil War and Revolutionary War there were several women that disguised themselves as me, took weapons, and went to the field. There were approximately 400 women that served in the Civil War. Also during the US Civil War, some Zouave units in both the Union and Confederate sides had another role for women called a vivandiere, providing food, liquor, and supplies. These women sometimes wore the uniform of the regiment. See http://www.vivandiere.net/. The vivandiers were called "daughters of the regiment." During the Mexican War, a woman served alongside her husband I do not remember exactly where I saw this. In a Mexican attack, she was given a rifle and she never missed. She was breveted a colonel.

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My unit does not allow women to participate as men. We consider it disrespectful to the women who served. It is also not well received in the WW2 re-enacting community.

 

-Sarah

 

The original poster indicated that his significant other was more interested in shooting a gun and roughing it with the men, rather than living history, so that is why I suggested considering reenacting as a man.

I am aware that this is controversial in many groups, but I would stop short of saying that it's not well received in the WWII reenacting community. In my area, for instance, if a woman wants to portray the role, and does so authentically with the appearance of a man, then she is accepted. This is especially true for the Axis forces, where there might not be enough of the "enemy" to fight at a particular event. We don't have large groups of women reenactors in the Mid South, so we tend to be thin at events and mostly do living history. When women participate in battles as nurses, war correspondents, etc, it's usually at public battles rather than tacticals.

 

In situations where ANC, War Correspondents and Refugees would be allowed to participate, I would assume that would depend on the size of the battle, and the groups participating. Every event and group has different rules. If the woman in question lives in an area with lots of female reenactors, and those persons routinely attend tacticals, then obviously that would be great. If not, she might not enjoy participating as such by herself. Again- everything depends on the area where she lives, and the general "norm" of the reenactors groups there.

 

Personally, I don't agree with the idea of women portraying men in battle, but everyone participates in the hobby for different reasons, and that topic is a whole other discussion. The ones that I know of that do it, are some of the most respected and best "soldiers" out there. They know the history and are authentic, and that can't be said of all the men in the hobby. :)

 

-Kathryne

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