[user104658]

I do sort of agree that it takes something away from the first born-female on the front line, when that happens... as has been said the training to be front line ready is no small thing and (biological fact, not sexism!) men have higher physical potential / physical peak than women. She hadn't even started taking female hormones at the time of training so, no matter how you look at it, the achievement in that training is no different to any of her peers.

On the flipside, I also agree that there has been a massive missed opportunity to celebrate the fact that the army, and her colleagues, have been so accepting of this, when some might imagine that it would be strongly rejected or cause harassment or other issues. That should be the focus of the story . Understanding and acceptance. Instead I personally feel like the gutterpress is probably trying to make some sort of point... pretending to think it's all great whilst actually covertly trying to irk their readers (because an angry reader is an enthusiastic reader, when it comes to the rags).