Changing History for Inclusivity?

I am
not a gamer.  I think that the last game I played was Mortal
Kombat back in the 90s which mainly consisted of hitting a lot of
buttons with no idea what I was doing.  (Worked for me though, I
had a good success rate!)

The
guy I am dating is a gamer.  I was interested to see how games
have progressed over the years, in terms of graphics, how realistic, what they were like to play now etc etc.  My first introduction was the new Spiderman game and I
was amazed at how far games have come along.  You could actually learn your way around New York just by playing the game and the quality of the animation is as good as and in some cases better than film quality.

Then he showed me Battlefield V.   I wasn't sure a first
person shooter game was going to be something that interested me, but he showed me the advertisement video as a taster and I was shocked to see
that one of the first people I saw was a woman.  On the front
line, in a WW2 game.

Women
were not on the front line in WW2.

Photo Credit

The
Russians, I agree, had women in active duty, such as Lyudmila
Pavlichenko, the famous Soviet  sniper.  But were there
American and British women on the front lines of battle in hand to
hand combat against the Nazis?  No.  

Featuring
women on the promo posters and showing them predominantly in the game
for me, is an insult to both the men who actually served on the
front, but also, the women who contributed to the war effort, many
dying in the process.

Have
we reached a place where inclusivity prevails over historical
accuracy?

Now
in 2019 women can serve in any branch of the military as a man. 
 If you can pass the same physical tests that men undergo, there
is no reason to stop a woman who wishes to serve her country and be
at the front line of battle.  Women are already doing this now
and have died doing so.

But
in WW2 this was not on the case.  Not in battle.  This is
where EA DICE have fundamentally screwed up.  Including women in
this game is completely historically incorrect and to me, is so
wrong.

While
women were not subject to the draft and were not called to the front,
women did contribute to the war effort, some sacrificing their lives
in the process.  They worked in munition factories.  They
drove ambulances.  Ferried planes.  Nurses joined the war
effort in their thousands, stationed close to the front and helping
wounded soldiers.  Some died in the process.

Women
were recruited for and joined the resistance, became spies and
operatives; risking their lives to share information and derail the
Nazis.  They fought.  They shot and just like the men who
they fought along side, some were captured, tortured and died.  

Women
like Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who saved over 2500 Jewish
children from the Nazis in Warsaw.  She was captured, tortured
to the extent that her legs and feet were broken, yet she refused to
provide information.

American
Virginia Hall, called "the most dangerous of the Allied spies"
by the Nazis.  Despite only having one leg, she helped to train
the French resistance and caused chaos for the Nazis with cutting
supply lines and gathering vital information, all the while being
hunted by the SS/

New
Zealander Nancy Wake aka "the white mouse" as she was
called by the Germans who on occasion, killed Nazis with her bare
hands.

Violette
Szabo, who worked as a British operative and resistance fighter and
fought against the Nazis.  She was ultimately captured and
despite several escape attempts from the concentration camp, was
ultimately executed.  She was the second woman to ever be
awarded posthumously the George Cross. 

There
are so many more.

My
point?   EA DICE did not need to pander to inclusivity by
including women in the game, featured in places where they did not
fight.  Because although not at the front lines, women served
their countries in many ways, dying in the process.

You
want to include women in WW2 in a game?  Make a game about the
resistance, about spies in WW2, where women served alongside men. 
Don't just include them in a game to appease gender equality. 
Women played their own, active and vital part too.

Celebrate that.  Don't put women where they were not and do not insult in the process the war heroes who fought on the front lines and died for our country.  Both men and women deserve better than this.

Celebrating The Quiet Ones

Six years ago, practically to the day, I wrote about the shiny people that pass through your life.

You know the kind of people I mean.  The ones that shine so bright in your eyes that they seem to attract the sun itself.  They sparkle (in a non Twilight vampire kind of way). They are the ones who flit around, directly their "in favour spotlight" on person after person, who each falls in love with their shine, only to then be left in the cold.

You can spend years without realising with these people in your circles, having once or twice experienced that glow and (most of the time unconsciously) seeking it out again at all costs, like an addict craves heroine. 

They are the human equivalent of Fool's Gold.  They do not provide you with real love or friendship other than what they want to offer.

I have had two of those shiny kind of people in my life, one of whom broke my heart and inspired my original blog post.  Looking back in retrospect, I broke my own heart.  He was never mine and he never loved me.  He loved my love for him.  I wasted far too many years pining for something that didn't exist.

Today however, I want to talk about the quiet people in your life.  

You do not  have to have the loudest voice or the biggest personality to have a major impact on someone's life.  Sometimes it is the quiet, unassuming people that are a constant in your life that you will always carry in your heart.

Four years ago today, we lost my wonderful step dad.  He was more than I could ever have hoped for.

When I lost my own dad at eight, I knew that no one could ever replace him.  When my mum married a year later to this nice man with the kind eyes who seemed to adore my mum, I was still understandably wary.

Yet he never tried to be my dad.  He just immediately and forever treated me like his own daughter.  He was a quiet man with not too much to say.  He was laid back, so much so we used to joke he should have wheels on his head.

He would have done anything for me and I knew that I could always count on him.  I never called him dad.  He understood why.  But I loved him like he was.  He was my H and I knew he would have stepped in front of a truck for me. 

What I remind myself of constantly now is to remember the people that stay with you.  They quietly walk by your side and stand by you.  They are the most important people that will be in your life, when all the glitter and sparkle is put aside.

We must always remember not to take advantage of their good nature, and take the time to thank them.

Thank you H.  You meant the world to me.