Woman Aggie = bad?

I live in Australia where WAG means "Wives and Girlfriends" so... I guess one could argue that it's sexist and/or maybe even homophobic since it doesn't address dudes boyfriends.

Honest question......Did WAG replace Maggie, like WM (Woman Marine) replaced BAM (broadass Marine)?

The Marines I know call them "wooks". But yes, a wag is a female cadet. I call them wags and so do my wag friends. So yeah, it's really based on intent.

I think for some it comes down to the question of why is there a need for a separate term for male and female cadets? I think the term grew out of culture not wanting to accept females at A&M and many still see its meaning in that light. Having a term that is different than all the rest denotes you are not the same as the rest of the team and that is likely why it was used in the beginning. These two things are different. These are cadets and these are wags (which are female cadets but we don't want to call them cadets because they aren't real cadets.)

Like a lot of words or terms, it boils down to meaning different things to different people. I definitely do not think everyone who says it uses it in a derogatory way and many female cadets have embraced it. But I still think you have to ask yourself why do you think we need a whole separate term for a cadet just based on their gender. And even though many don't use it in a negative way, many still do, or at least did while I was in. Most of the times I heard the term was when someone said, "we don't want Wags in our outfit."

I was in the Army, so all soldiers were soldiers and if you needed to differentiate you said male or female soldiers. There are very few situations where you need to separate female cadets/soldiers from male/female cadets in a discussion and then you can just use the term females. Like, we need separate latrines or bathing facilities for the females. Having a separate term is needlessly divisive, especially if you have to ask if it is bad. That being said, the Corps is not the military.

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I was in the Army, so all soldiers were soldiers and if you needed to differentiate you said male or female soldiers. There are very few situations where you need to separate female cadets/soldiers from male/female cadets in a discussion and then you can just use the term females. Like, we need separate latrines or bathing facilities for the females. Having a separate term is needlessly divisive, especially if you have to ask if it is bad. That being said, the Corps is not the military.

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As a Tank Platoon leader back in the days when the ranks were officially (on paper anyway) populated by straight males, yeah, you did need a term to tell your soldiers when to put their junk away. Finishing up Tank Table VIII one day, my Texas Longhorn driver jumped out of the driver's hatch and started peeing off the front deck - right as a female medic appeared. Pretty tough to stop mid-stream after you've been buttoned up on the range for a while.

You also frequently needed to remind your soldiers to behave properly during the rare occasions when a member of the opposite sex was in range (earshot/eyeshot).

These female soldiers were generally referred to as *****es (rhymes with witches). I certainly knew at the time that this was inappropriate behaviour. It wasn't a term that I personally ever used but, it was definitely rampant in the ranks.

As a cadet, when I did my CTLT (Cadet Troop Leadership Training) with a Combat Engineer unit who deployed to Kuwait while I was with them, one of my mentor officers described the need to keep our soldiers from getting distracted by the females supporting the mission who he referred to as COSCOM (Corps Support Command) *****es. Not something I would have said but, it was easy to understand and definitely got the point across very quickly.

Not saying it's right but just recounting a slightly different experience - albeit outdated for the modern all-play Army.

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Like a lot of words or terms, it boils down to meaning different things to different people. I definitely do not think everyone who says it uses it in a derogatory way and many female cadets have embraced it. But I still think you have to ask yourself why do you think we need a whole separate term for a cadet just based on their gender. And even though many don't use it in a negative way, many still do, or at least did while I was in. Most of the times I heard the term was when someone said, "we don't want Wags in our outfit."

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As a cadet, I was in the last class to have all their female fish buddies to quit the Aggie Band. I'm not going to say that was right but it is in fact what happened. We also had a small contingent of Ol' BQs who would gather around the tunnel at the North End of Kyle Field and would yell "Get the *****es out of the Band" when we would march through the tunnel after football games.

Later, the term Waggie was being used rampantly, had a negative connotation and enough female cadets complained about it that it got banned from use and you'd get in trouble if you said Waggie or Wag. So... a few of our smart-ass upperclassmen came up with alternate terms.

So... just to let y'all know that Texas A&M isn't the only Senior Military College with a female cadet naming problem. At VMI, they use the term "Sheed". I have no idea what it means. It is normally used in a derogatory context i.e. - "Who was responsible for making the mistake? It was some f'n sheed who did X, Y & Z."

In its 180 years history, VMI has only allowed female cadets for just over 20 years. So, female cadets are still kind of a new thing so, I suspect they're still trying to figure some of it out. Texas A&M has a 20 year headstart with respect to female cadets.

But, many of the female cadets do embrace the term "sheed" so it can go both ways.

And since nobody else has Rule #1'd this thread, I'll contribute a few that I discovered on Instagram while I was validating the correct spelling of "sheed".

https://instagr.am/p/BxkxC3lnQAS

https://instagr.am/p/BxTJ7ZslHgC

Me me me me me. Here's another story about me.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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Me me me me me. Here's another story about me.

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Do share. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe (I'm sure others have too). And if we don't document our experiences, all those moments will be lost in time like "Tears in the Rain".

Moy said:

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Honest question......Did WAG replace Maggie, like WM (Woman Marine) replaced BAM (broadass Marine)?

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WM is about 0.01% below the n-word today. a commander would likely be fired for using it.

When the original class of female cadets showed up, waggie was definitely used as a term of derision. With an attitude of "We're not gonna let you run us off!" those outstanding young ladies took the term and made it their own. Just another way they gave the "No girls in our Corps" guys a big middle finger!

When I was in, it was just simpler to say Wag (one syllable) as opposed to 'female cadet' or even 'female'

Male is already one syllable. No alternate term needed.

We could've also called them chicks, but that would've probably pissed the wags off.

It was definitely frowned upon for us to use the term (2011-2015) but I knew a lot of female cadets who used the term with pride.

Why is WM derogatory? Are black Marines no longer called dark green Marines either?

Moy said:

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Why is WM derogatory? Are black Marines no longer called dark green Marines either?

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Don't ask me, I don't agree with any of the PC nonsense taking over the Corps. We still say dark green / light green, but usually only in jest. A commander would never use it in front of a group.

A. Solzhenitsyn said:

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Moy said:

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Why is WM derogatory? Are black Marines no longer called dark green Marines either?

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Don't ask me, I don't agree with any of the PC nonsense taking over the Corps. We still say dark green / light green, but usually only in jest. A commander would never use it in front of a group.

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dark green/light green/pink green?

Moy said:

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Honest question......Did WAG replace Maggie, like WM (Woman Marine) replaced BAM (broadass Marine)?

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In mid 60's with all the "change" - the term "Maggie" was often used... not necessarily derisively either...

Mom is class of '79, she still uses wag in ref to female cadets......

In my time Maggies were the non-regs and Waggies were the cadets.