Before last week's bombshell hit the airsoft community I was working on a write up talking about female players in airsoft. I was going to discuss the integration and growth of the female population into what is a well-known boys club. This topic comes at a time when the US military is making big shifts allowing female soldiers into combat jobs within the military, which had been previously unavailable to female troops. So it is all flowing on the same time line and I looked to draw comparisons since there are similarities, not because milsim is mirroring the real military, it is more about how in the military you have a long standing boys club that has had its struggles with gender equality too. As part of my research, I talked to a few female airsoft players and was actively seeking out more for the piece.

Now we come to this week's events where a lot of lies and false information has been spread around to screw event promoters. I am going to take a moment to focus on one big aspect of this week's allegations that seems to still have a lot of speculation revolving around it. The part of last week's event I am talking about is the controversy surrounding a female player being sexually harassed at Milsim West's (MSW) event held earlier this year at Camp Shelby. Because this is one of the ugliest of rumors going around it seemed best to go straight to the source on this one to clear the air. It is a key component of last week's events and has its place in my other piece as part of a bigger snapshot of female players in our community.

The female player mentioned in this week's controversy is named Lynsey, a one time MSW event goer that was at the MSW Camp Shelby game in February. I have left out her last name out of respect for her privacy and she will get a link to this post so she can decide if she wants to reveal herself to the general public.

Lynsey attended MSW's event with some friends/family because "It seemed like it'd be fun and an experience" she said. It is safe to say that she was not a satisfied customer of MSW by the time she left the event early on Saturday. From the start, she felt that the power point briefing saying "sandy vaginas" and "throwing like a girl" was unprofessional of the MSW staff. She admits that this was not aimed directly at her but as a female customer she found it offensive. There were other female players there and Lynsey did not know if this had offended any of them also.

Once the game went into motion, Lynsey's team felt that they were not enjoying the game since they felt they were stuck on guard duty out in the cold when others would not do the task. This, combined with no action for a prolonged period of time made the game not enjoyable to them when they expected a more active fun flowing event. Anyone that knows MSW knows that it is anything but a high paced BB slinging fest of constant action. It is a simulation of combat in a more realistic stretched out pace. So from the get go the structure of the game and Lynsey's expectations were on a course to never agree. Her team would end up leaving the event due to a family emergency, but they would have stayed and stuck it out even though they were not having a good time. The family emergency is why they actually left early.

She did state that some players were rude and disrespectful but she says those were just random people. I asked, "Were you harassed at the game by players or staff?'”

She stated to me, "Me, specifically by staff, no. One of the players in my squad that was on post with me for most of the night stated we should cuddle and I made it clear to him that wouldn't happen. Other than that no, I don't recall anyone saying anything to my face at the game".

Lynsey feeling harassed and attacked did not come until after the event when she posted her review. She felt Josh Warren was unprofessional and egged on the comments from MSW supporters online. Then a satire page on Facebook, "Try Hard Airsofters" posted her review and that brought out more negative commentators. Now, "Try Hard Airsofters" is not associated with Josh Warren or Milsim West. At this point, Josh is guilty of being a dick online and maybe even some unprofessional behavior to an unsatisfied customer but that is small potatoes when he is accused of hosting wild events during which female players are harassed or open to sexual assault. Not an angel, but not the devil he and his events have been made out to be by competitors or haters.

Lynsey is a player like any other just hoping to have a fun weekend playing airsoft and ended up being an unsatisfied customer and a victim of the cruelty of the internet. But she is by her own admission, not a victim in a much darker story going around of female player harassment promoted or condoned by MSW at their event. It is this very ugly rumor that has to now stop and is the greatest offense propagated by MSW competitors.

Along with the story of harassment is the claim made that Lynsey herself had reached out to the MUTC to propagate the now debunked harassment story. So once again I asked the source, "Did you ever contact the MUTC about your MSW experience?"

She said, "No, I don't even know what MUTC is."

It is clear that lies have been allowed to spread wildly. These lies have now touched innocent event promoters and the players in the airsoft community. But the truth if far from what has been put out and allowed to run free about MSW. MSW is not an organization of angels without flaws or bad customer service at times. They are clearly not for everyone and some feel put off by Josh Warren's brashness at times. But the real question is does that mean they deserve to have lies about female harassment or sexual assault spread about their business in an attempt to torpedo them?

Javier "Darkhorse"
One Grunt's Opinion

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About The Author

Javier "Darkhorse" Franco, formerly from This Week In Airsoft, runs his own Airsoft Blog on Facebook called "One Grunt's Opinion." The original article was posted there.