Female Fighter Pilots

Though this picture may not initially jump out as an example of a gendered body, the story behind the photo will surely change your mind. In front of her F-14 Tomcat stands Kara Spears Hultgreen of the United States Navy. Hultgreen was the first female fighter pilot trained and cleared to operate from an aircraft carrier. On final approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln after a routine training mission on October 25^th, 1994, Hultgreen’s aircraft experienced a mechanical failure in the left engine, which led to a series of events that prevented her from landing safely on the aircraft carrier. Ultimately, Hultgreen did not survive the crash. Immediately after the crash her qualifications and certifications as a fighter pilot for the United States Navy fell subject to heavy criticism and critique. The opinion of many people around the time of the crash were sexist, arguing that Hultgreen’s female gender led to the fatal event; Hultgreen should never have gained carrier pilot status in the first place because she was a female. This event combined with the reaction of the public after the crash is the epitome of why military fighter pilots are a gendered body. Just as Richard Dyer comments on the invisibility of white bodies due to their race and class, I feel white male bodies are undoubtedly most invisible. The United States Navy, and more specifically Navy carrier pilots were once viewed as “a man’s job.” Hultgreen went against cultural norms by working her way through flight school and F-14 training. She is a role model to many, as female fighter pilots have become much more common in the years since Hultgreen’s tragic crash. For a more graphic look at Hultgreen’s devastating crash, video footage can be found here: http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/Starfighter/840/. As an Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics major myself, I have come across discrimination in a few of my classes. The field of aviation is a male dominated field and a gendered body in and of itself.