02.16.2019 04:02 PM

The Canadian Armed Forces thinks young female recruits are concerned about make-up

One of our daughters spotted this on Facebook.  She sent it along – and I at first didn’t believe it was real.

Apparently it is.  The link it goes to is here.

Personally, this ad struck me as sexist and stupid.  I mean, does the CAF run ads asking young men similar kinds of stuff?

What do you think?  Dumb move or clever marketing?

13 Comments

  1. keith mcintosh says:

    I served for a decade. My son is currently serving. The breed of recruit is vastly different from a generation ago. Sadly, all the generalizations one might fear about millennials are accurate. Kids quitting because they can’t access their smart phone during basic. Kids showing up unable to perform a single pushup, because recruit screening has all but disappeared. Fat kids galore….

    So yeah. This is likely something asked routinely at recruiting centers, and instead of an eye-roll response, they’re bending over backwards not to scare anyone away.

    Keep in mind, the CF has a gun to their head to increase female #s…

  2. HarryR says:

    ‘Yeah, ya can wear make-up, petal. It’s called camouflage. Now, get down and gimme fifty and watch you don’t catch your nose ring in the thistles!’

  3. Steve T says:

    I know folks in the service, and apparently this question does come up – primarily regarding situations when a female serviceperson is wearing their uniform while “off duty”. They want to know if they can otherwise dress as they would in civilian life (including make-up; hair; etc).

    Now, whether this is of any value as a recruiting question (ie – before they even sign up) is questionable. Would it really make a difference as to whether someone signs up? The reply from Keith above suggests it might, so I defer to those in the know.

  4. rww says:

    Might be better to feature a question like “Can I be a racist in the Canadian Armed Forces” since many current members do not comprehend the obvious answer.

    • I Know What you Did says:

      well and the “can i rape a fellow soldier and get away with it indefinitely” question too. why? because in the caf YOU CAN!

      not surprising though. a huge amount of enlisted white men think raping murdering harassing being racist sexist etc are signs of “toughness” or “power” when all it signals is peasant-mentality trash and poor breeding

      caf needs to clean house bc all the caf is doing by pretending the racism and raping arent a serious problem is training a-holes in how to get away with rape and murder and it is all going to backfire and explode (whats the term? backsplash?) when it comes out that the recent suicides werent suicides but hazing murders covered up by high ranking officers at st jean.

      better deal w it now boys bc you wait too long and your careers and public life/reputation are dead in the water with no hope of ever reanimating……the whistleblowers are gathering

  5. Fred from BC says:

    It can’t really be sexist if it was a legitimate question asked by a recruit, but it was definitely dumb for someone to choose to use it in an ad.

  6. Campbell says:

    To be honest, a huge number of young women who might consider joining the Armed Forces probably do have questions like this. So, I think it’s clever marketing, with a positive lens.

  7. the salamander says:

    .. cosmetics concerns ? Way past my paygrade to comment.. I do regret I have not kept up with the story re CF bungling the selections or acceptance programs re Officer Training candidates. Not sure what kind of military you end up with when the officer corps are not being brought along by senior or at least experienced exemplars.

    These are challenging times for Canadian Forces. Politics & Governments have flipped & flopped – ridiculous decisions or deferments (delays) re political Procurement. At times I wonder how we seem at the behest of American Forces.. and now a lost cause named Trump. How about our injured military veterans? Then we have America with boots and material in approx 73 countries.. and astonishing budgets accordingly (can you spell, ‘flailing, failing, expiring colonial empire’ ?) More challenges re sexual identity.. hell, even washroom signs.. and floating right there is the issue & scandal of sexual harrasment. If its in police forces, politics, entertainment, fire departments, schools.. then its gonna be in our military as well.

    My family was military.. Officers & Enlisted. I know where they fought, that my father and a single Uncle survived. I know where the dead are buried and where the Missing During Action are honoured overseas.

    Questions about cosmetics ? Whew !

  8. zing says:

    Some female potential recruits probably ask. That’s why this is out there.

    As for asking men similar questions, well, I can take a guess that “can I keep my man bun?” and “what about my tat?” are similar questions that could well be put in an ad like this…

  9. John D. says:

    I joined the Canadian Forces two weeks after my 17th birthday, and yes, this is exactly the sort of question that young people that age ask.

    This whole post modern neo Marxist fantasy world, where every normal human interaction is reduced to a ridiculous “power struggle”, is the true threat to our collective future. A recruiting ad that tries to help young women understand the world they will inherit is something to be praised, not attacked.

  10. barn E. rubble says:

    RE: “Personally, this ad struck me as sexist and stupid.”

    Personally, this ad struck me as scary. This is the target market for finding those whose job it will be is to kill (and maybe die) for your country? How many guys (or former guys) asked the same question? Is that sexist?

    As for stupid, I’m guessing they stopped tracking the ‘stupidest question’ some time ago based on the frequency of changing it.

    My wife wouldn’t leave the house without a minimum of mascara and lipstick even if it was on fire.

    When truism becomes sexism, we have a problem . . .

  11. JamesHalifax says:

    Yes, you can wear makeup in uniform, but keep it in bounds. the only folks I saw who looked like a horror show with too much makeup, were the dudes who thought they were women, and slapped on tons of the stuff. Perhaps a lesson in proper makeup application is in order alongside the shooting range requirements.

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