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Suddenly, half the world is interested in the Swiss army because the soldiers’ underwear is not suitable. What is happening there?
Defense Minister Viola Amherd is committed to advancing women in the military: Amherd with fighter pilot Fanny Chollet at a press conference in Bern.
Photo: Peter Klaunzer (Keystone)
Switzerland can be proud of many things, but not always of its armed forces: if it was the accidental crossing of the border with Liechtenstein with 170 heavily armed soldiers 14 years ago; the few kilograms of explosives that suddenly disappeared in a barracks, or last July the stumbled participation of four Swiss soldiers in the celebrations of the French national holiday, the shame and the scandals are not alien to this army either.
Now it is another issue that worries the armed forces. A few days ago it appeared in the Swiss newspapers, but also in BBC, guardian and CNNthat she was trying on new underwear for women. Until now, he told himself indignantly, this men’s underwear should have been worn.
Kaj-Gunnar Sievert, spokesperson for Armasuisse, sighs. “I was almost exclusively busy with my underwear all week,” he says by phone. Rarely has he experienced such hype in the media. The real thrill, the claim with the men’s briefs, is a false report. “Yes, we will have new underwear for soldiers tested from mid-April,” Sievert confirms. “Women’s underwear has been in the military since the mid-1990s.” Before that, all members of the military had brought their own underwear, including the men. “No, really no woman” has been forced to wear men’s underwear.
“But there were also men who were not satisfied with theirs”
So much noise and little nuts? Not quite. In fact, the fit of the first generation of women’s briefs “was not always ideal,” admits the Armasuisse spokesman. “But there were also men who weren’t satisfied with theirs.”
Therefore, Sievert prefers to talk about the new combat clothing of the Swiss armed forces, which his office requested in 2018 and which will be presented in 2022, than about boxer shorts. Special attention was paid to the special needs of women. Currently, the military is continually testing the individual components of this new uniform, and now the series of tests for women’s underwear is about to begin.
A small group of soldiers should try two pieces of “functional underwear”: shorts for summer (tight, olive green, no legs) and long shorts for winter (“a completely normal underwear,” says Kaj-Gunnar Sievert ). Bras, on the other hand, are not part of combat clothing. These are still brought from home, Sievert says.
It remains to be seen if the military can really score points with women with the underwear project. The proportion of female soldiers in the Swiss army is currently 0.9 percent. The Ministry of Defense under Federal Councilor Viola Amherd absolutely want to increase this rate. In addition to the new underwear, other ideas are also circulating that should help, for example a proposal by a parliamentarian presented in early March: According to this, the government should definitely check whether the soldiers’ “mouse gray initial uniform” still it’s updated.
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