Female soldiers furious at girlie show

The show wasn't so 'purrfect' for female forces in Iraq.
SACRAMENTO BEE
Sharon Kibiloski is in Baghdad, and she's fighting mad.
The target of the U.S. Air Force captain's ire is the U.S. Army -- and what Kibiloski views as the Army's misguided efforts to raise troop morale by sending a scantily clad female troupe called "The Purrfect Angelz" on a two-week tour of military installations in Kuwait and Iraq.
A lavender flier advertising the troupe's Baghdad show portrays a quartet of women wearing faux military uniforms that consist of headgear, halter tops and hot pants. According to its Web site, the Angelz' act consists of singing, provocative dancing and acrobatics.
"The show only appeals to men, and in my mind has the potential to increase sexual advances toward female soldiers afterward," Kibiloski said in e-mails and reiterated in a telephone interview. "To me, if the military really cared about sexual harassment, they would not sponsor such a show."
Kibiloski, who is serving as a public affairs officer in Baghdad's International Zone, stressed she was speaking not in her official role, but as an outraged woman.
Dozens of women interviewed for a series of stories in the Sacramento Bee this month said they had been sexually harassed by male comrades-in-arms while in the Iraq combat theater, and many said the military hierarchy had dragged its feet in addressing the problem.
Women constitute more than 15 percent of the country's active duty military, Reserve and National Guard units, and it's estimated that more than 100,000 have served in the combat zone since the United States invaded Iraq two years ago -- by far a record wartime deployment of women.
Critics of the Pentagon's response to problems raised by a two-gender fighting force characterized "The Purrfect Angelz" tour as yet another troubling example.