WASHINGTON — Rather than being stereotyped as “victims” by the U.S media, American military women deserve more attention on how they blend into society after demobilization, Iraq War veteran Kate Hoit said, calling for a correction of military women’s image in the media.
“There are not all negative stories,” Hoit said at the 2014 Medill National Security Journalism Initiative Conference on Thursday. “Female veterans have other parts of their life. They are just not balanced representations. It’s not sexy, that’s why the media doesn’t write about it.”
Hoit joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 2001 when she was 17. After three years she was deployed to Balad, Iraq, where she served as a military journalist for a year.
“Not all of the female veterans have experienced military sexual trauma, homelessness or unemployment,” Hoit said, but too often those issues are highlighted in news stories at the expense of other issues important to women, like getting more education, taking care of their families or dealing with civilian life.
From Hoit’s perspective, many female veterans are mothers or young girls going to college after coming back from war, trying to integrate into society and disassociate with military life.
“It [time in the service] was hugely different than coming home,” Hoit said. Although she got a good job, she felt disconnected. “I was just a 21-year-old chick,” she said, “I lost that identity, which was what a lot of people are struggling with as well.”
It took Hoit almost eight years to rebuild her personal and professional connections after she left the military. “Getting on the plane, going oversees and being dropped somewhere is not hard when you don’t know what you are expecting,” Hoit said, but coming back to “the place you are supposed to be most recognizable but you were not” is hard.
Hoit serves as the director of communications at Got Your 6, a cultural impact campaign designed to help close the military-civilian divide.
Partnered with 32 national veteran organizations and a Hollywood production crew, the communication team of Got Your 6 aims to rebuild the “victim” perception of female veterans in pop culture.
