No, that makes sense. In my office, almost all of my team have been trained by veterans—people who are very educated—around trauma-informed care, and it's really made our lives a lot better. Hearing those stories is really hard, so I think trying to find that balance point is important, and self-care is very important if you're trying to care for others.
You talked about hypermasculinity across gender expression, so I'd like to hear a bit more about what that means to you. We are in the process of finishing up, hopefully soon, a study on women veterans. We heard again and again how they felt extremely invisible and how their reality wasn't reflected. In fact, the general public seems to think that if they are wearing medals with civilian attire, those medals belong to somebody else—to a man who is in some way connected to them. I'm curious about hypermasculinity across gender expression, what that means and the impact.
The other part I'm curious about is whether in the play you have any stories that are women-specific. Were there any challenges in getting women to speak out in relation to their service, as compared to men? What was the reality on both sides?