Disarming Young Women

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/in-moscow-little-girl-soldiers/?ref=women

This photojournalism piece discusses a school in Russia that I found unsettling: a military academy exclusively for young girls. The extremely austere school trains girls who hope for futures in the army, the police force or the Federal Security Service. Denominated "The Little Spies of Putin" by a French journalist these girls are forbidden to smoke, drink, socialize while unattended or even chew gum. The photographer behind the work commented that the girls can “strip down an AK-47 Kalashnikov in the time it takes most kids to send an S.M.S." One image depicts middle school aged girls in what is described as a "Basics of Military Service" class. A young blonde girl in the foreground clasps a small gun, pointed directly upwards. Another, two girls in the snow. They wear gas masks for a training exercise.

While these bizarre and alarming images are of interest in and of themselves, it is their temperament with "femininity" that makes this article of particular interest to this class. The photographer, who has grown extremely close with his long time subjects, observed, "They want to improve the role of women in Russia." Every girl, regardless of age, wears an enormous white bow (almost the size of some of their faces) in their hair to symbolize purity. A museum in the school celebrates famous and powerful Russian women. Beyond military pursuits the school's curriculum includes sewing, ballet and choir. The girls dress in long, poofy ball gowns and gloves for their annual ball with the neighboring all boys school.

For me, this school is a bizarre scene of contrasts. The strength represented in female warriors combined with the old fashioned "feminine" curriculum. The purity of youth and particularly the white bows combined with the brutality of young women and girls training in combat. First of all, do you think it is appropriate to begin this sort of training for anyone at such a young age (though specifics aren't given, middle school seems an appropriate estimate)? Second, does this school promote female strength, independence and power or are its military purposes insufficient an insufficient overture for the decidedly domestic or feminine course offerings?

PS- Please take a look at the photographs. They are beautiful.