There are plenty of examples in the media of men taking pictures of “their girl” with them while on deployment. With the development of technology and social media, this has altered in at least one interesting example. In Israel, a Facebook page called “Standing with IDF” dedicated to the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, has popped up encouraging Israeli women to post seminude pictures of themselves in support of their troops, usually with some variant of "I LOVE IDF" proclaimed on their bare skin.
The photos of women are posted completely by their choice. The man who founded it, Gavriel Beyo, told The Daily Beast in an interview that he began the page to “romanticize IDF and Israel” and to offset the general worldwide distaste harbored towards the faction and the nation.
Entering into any discussion related to the Israel-Hamas war is a nest of vipers. And the humanitarian cost of the conflict cannot be ignored. Almost 2,000 civilian casualties show the true victims of the conflict are the ordinary people of the Gaza Strip, and Israel, although to a far lesser extent.
Opinions on the Israel-Hamas conflict aside, the campaign to keep the morale of IDF troops up is well-intended, but is perhaps a juvenile and misdirected way to put support behind a serious situation.
Yes, all soldiers need morale boosters to keep fighting during the destruction they witness, but it does not justify the objectification and sexualization of women, regardless of whether those women contribute their photos willingly.
In America — and East Lansing — we are no stranger to nude or seminude photos. There are a handful of Twitter accounts that accept and regurgitate submitted pictures of MSU students, including but not limited to: “MSU beauties,” “MSU booty” and “MSU boobs.” Each boast thousands of subscribers, although these accounts serve no purpose other than to share pictures of students. Posts made to the Standing with IDF Facebook are seemingly made with the intent to serve a greater purpose, but it is poorly executed.
Women can do more than submit raunchy photos to support a war effort.
Technology has given us so many advantages and opportunities. It is a shame that the only way some people can think of to support their troops is by setting up a Facebook page with the slogan, “You’ll guard on top, we’ll guard your bottoms” in the “About” section.
While the idea of supporting troops is common on either side of any war effort, it can be done through other means, like collecting money. Despite its efforts to romanticize the Israeli war effort, this Facebook page seems to succeed only in raising awareness that there are good-looking women in Israel that support their country.
That isn’t to say that those women don’t have every right to post their photos to the page. They can choose to support IDF in any way they wish, but perhaps it would be more beneficial to offer support in a more direct way.
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