Should Girls Watch War Movies?
Recently in school, we wrapped up our time in a historical fiction book called Killer Angels. It is a great retelling of the Battle of Gettysburg, which is a gruesome and terrible battle for the U.S because it is all of our men fighting and dying in it. We were killing ourselves. There are plenty of good reasons for young boys to read this book. Plato and Aristotle taught that young men should study war firsthand in order for them to develop courage and to be able to delineate between cowardice and rashness. Courage is the middle ground between these two things.
A harder case to make is why woman should read and study a book like this. In the conservative mind, woman should never see the battlefield. It is a sad day when a lady has to pick up a sword or a gun to fight. Where have all the good men gone who should be protecting the woman and children? On may say that we need not focus on the terrible and instead focus on the positive. All we need to do is educate the people and all violence will stop. Man in inherently good. This is hog wash. On the other side, one may come back and say we live in the real world, so everyone should be prepared to face the evils of the world. Plato believed this as well. He made the case that the ableist of woman should also train and learn the arts of war right alongside the men.
For his time, I would have agree with Plato about the exposer of war and the way that he mapped it out. He planned to keep the kids safe from the dangers of war by having the students on swift horses to get away if things went bad. For today with our literature and media, I would not go so far as Plato does, but I would go farther than some conservatives. Should young ladies or woman learn about the things of war? Is it alright for them to read the books? Should the watch the war movies like Patriot, Lone Survivor, American Sniper, or Gettysburg? Should these images be placed in their minds beyond that of books? What kind of hedge of protection should we place around them?
If you haven’t found my scent trail yet, I would show you want I am stepping in by saying that absolutely women should know, read, and watch these types of things. As the training of war shapes the character of a man, so it does to a woman. To stick within the battle of Gettysburg, looking at the lives and deaths of men like Lee, Hancock, Pickett, Chamberlain, and Longstreet will only make someone a better person. These men lived and bled courage, wisdom, leadership, and sacrifice just to name a few. These men, on both sides, should be held up for our young men to want to be like. These men should also be held up for our young ladies to want to admire.
I was first introduced to this idea several years ago when I read George Gilder’s book Men and Marriage. It opens with the idea of the barbarian and the princess. One of these must change in order to get married, and it isn’t the one in the dress. Women have a stabilizing effect on society that cannot be downplayed. It was the crotchety old church ladies that were able to get more that 60% of the country to vote to amend the Constitution to outlaw alcohol. That is some awesome power that they wield. In this case, they wielded it in the wrong way, but you can’t downplay the size of it.
A fun, modern example of this stabilizing effect is from Duck Dynasty. Phil and Kay Robertson had a terrific relationship by the time the first show came out. If you haven’t seen it, The Blind is another fabulous show about Phil and Kay’s early relationship and how Phil came to be with the Lord. Watch it. It will encourage your soul. In Duck Dynastythough, Phil and Kay have what our church would call a “happy marriage.” Phil is a woodsman who provided for his family with food from the woods of Luisiana, and his son turned those skills into a multi-million-dollar company. Phil feels most comfortable with a shotgun in his hands to put it another way. To Phil, men should have big bushy beards. It appears like he took a Nazarite vow. The majority of his sons married what he calls, “yuppie” women, or people who shower regularly, and their kids follow suit. Phil is always being pulled out of the woods to do things for them that everyone who watches the show can tell that Phil would rather die than do what they are asking him. Ms. Kay, as everyone calls her, knows how to get her husband to do anything for her. She offers Phil some “honey on the biscuit,” and no matter how ridiculous the request is, he gives his signature thumbs up and goes along with it.
Phil isn’t going along with her because he is abdicating his leadership. Ms. Kay is not manipulating her husband with cheap tricks. Phil understood that culture requires sacrifice, his sacrifice. He had to die to himself for the sake of the next generation. He learned to trust Ms. Kay over the years because she also sacrificed herself for the family when times were hard. She had proved her character to him when he was at his worse. They developed a fidelity to each other and Christ because of the trials that they had gone through together. In The Blind, you see that she kept the family together and took him back after he hit rock bottom. She is the one that helped tame him along with Christ.
Ms. Kay came from a well-off family with a good education and knew a good man when she saw one. She knew that Phil would be great. Phil just didn’t know it yet when they first started off. It took many years for Phil to be saved and be the type of man that Ms. Kay knew him to be. He has since passed away but the rest of his life seemed to be one of sacrificing the right types of things and knowing that his wife would always help him in the right way.
Ms. Kay knew the right kinds of stories and what true character looked like. She knew that Phil had the makings of a great man. She trusted in God to refine her husband, stayed faithful, and did not settle until he repented. She held the standard when Phil had no standard. This is a good example of the stabilizing effect of woman.
As we seek to raise up the next generation of great men and women, they need the right kind of education, one that sees true examples of the hard character fully played out. They need heroes to emulate and admire. Boys need to see the kinds of men that they are to become. They need the past heroes in order to become the heroes of the future. Girls need to see the types of men that are worth marrying. They need to hold that standard while the boys around them become those types of men. The world is a dark place. We need brave knights and elegant princesses to spread the light. War, though dark, is a place where diamonds learn to shine. Don’t shield children’s eyes just because it is bright. Teach them to stand in the light. Teach them to be the light.