Thursday, December 4, 2008

Time for change at VMI


A female cadet checks her watch as the new addition to the VMI Barracks rises in the background.

Yesterday's photo showed the old barracks; today's shows the latest addition, almost complete. Female cadets are slightly less new: the first women graduated from VMI in 2001.

In 1990, the U.S. government brought a discrimination suit against the school. The case went to the Supreme Court, and VMI was finally forced to admit women, after 158 years as an all-male institution. There is still controversy about the change, especially among some alumni.

VMI has just adopted "gender norming" in physical training, after ten years of requiring women to meet the same standards as men. Do you think men and women ought to be held to the same physical standards in military training?

Update: I received some good advice about cropping from Benjamin Madison in the comments section, and did some experimenting. Do you prefer (A) above; cleaned up around the edges (B) below; or radically cropped (C) below that? [I think I like (B). I like the depth the tree gives.]


9 comments:

Tanya Breese said...

I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, women want the same treatment as men so they should also be expected to perform the same duties. My husband was in the Marine Corps and this was an issue the male Marines complained about, special treatment towards the women Marines.

I also think it's sad that they changed all that tradition to allow women. I don't see anything wrong with having all male and all female institutions.

MurciaDailyPhoto said...

The barracks that you show us is in use. In Spain, the number of soldiers dropped drastically when some 9 years ago and only turned professional military are those who want to be, not as before at the age of 18 had to do compulsory military service. Now, down to the number of soldiers, several military barracks have been closed and have moved into civilian life.

Victor said...

Perfect timing. Bravo!

Unknown said...

Fabulous photo! The framing is brilliant!

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Benjamin Madison said...

This is a striking photo with the dark clouds behind the brilliantly lit building and the dynamic young cadet striding along in the foreground. Welcome to City Daily Photo Blogs. It's going to be interesting to find out more about Lexington. I've not seen any bricks like Lexington's around here but Lexington had been built, burnt, and rebuilt long before Victoria was on the map.

Benjamin Madison said...

ps: forgive me for offering unsolicited remarks but I like this photo so much I cannot resist. If it was my photo I would crop it more tightly all the way around the edges. The curb and lawn at the bottom, the half of a bench on the right and the branch on the top are all just details that detract from the otherwise simple elegance of this photo.

CeciliaGallerani said...

Thanks, Benjamin Madison, for bringing this up. I'm a novice photographer, and everyone is invited to point out how I might improve my postings.

I played it with the photo a bit, and added a couple of alternatives at the bottom of my original post. What do you think?

Victor said...

For what it's worth, I think I like your original version better. The cropped one brings the crane into the scene a bit too much. I didn't really notice it in the first take. Just my two cents which is worth about that. Cheers and thanks for stopping by GDP.

Benjamin Madison said...

I'm with you MK, liking B best. I'm in favor of cropping generally (for my pics) because I have a bad tendency to want to include everything in every photo.