Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

When I was a child, I thought Major Margaret Houlihan was one of the prettiest, smartest women in the TV world. She had beautiful blond hair and was the head nurse so she was the best. She was one of the highest ranking officers. Her tent was pretty and well appointed. She had lovers who were swoon worthy.

She was a bad-ass, but she was also sensitive and compassionate. She was the woman among the cohort of men and stood toe to toe with them. Now mind you that most of my exposure to the show was via reruns, not primetime

MASH had great writing, powerful storylines, and a terrific ensemble cast. But it also had Loretta Swit.

Loretta had the unenviable challenge of showing the characters growth from ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan to the strong independent Major Margaret Houlihan during a three year span, stretched across 11 years of a television show. She was 35 when she was cast and 46 when the series ended, a stretch men could pull off without question. But I remember reading a piece about her being too old for the character, probably in a castoff magazine I found in a doctor’s office.

I scoffed.

She was criticized for being too old, too sexy, too hard, too loose, too unattainable. She was a woman among a cohort of men who never faced those critiques. That’s true of the character and the actor.

She had many other roles on stage and screen. So perhaps in many ways I’m just mourning Margaret and the impact she had on me?

She taught me how to grow up from being a silly man-hungry young woman to a mature capable and competent adult woman. She was originally foolish and stereotyped, but as her character grew – she filled each scene with determination, steely warmth in her eyes, and an undeniable commitment to her patients, her nurses, her doctors, and the Army. In that order.

But remember the silly young woman having an affair with ridiculous Frank, the woman ogled and objectified, she was still a bad-ass nurse – she was good at her job, she protected her nurses, and she wanted what was best.

Loretta taught us women that we could grow and change and mature. We could still be beautiful, but not let it define us. We could makes poor choices with lovers, but find real inner love and self-respect. We could let go of prejudice. We could let go (sometimes) of controlling the situation.

I know that the character, but after 11 seasons – Margaret was infused by Loretta.

MASH was a confusing show – a metaphor about the Vietnam War made in the 70s, set in the 50’s about another war entirely that lasted three years, but played out over 11 seasons. That was how my Dad explained it. My mother just said it was funny (she loved Frank Burns) and showed us how much pain a war could bring.

I rewatched the entire series a few years ago. My thoughts about Loretta grew – yes it was 11 years of aging meant to represent 3. But how could anyone face those atrocities and not age disproportionately? She carried the weight of the entire nursing staff, the only woman in leadership, all of these things that actually made sense that she didn’t look 38 when the series ended. And so much death.

She was still beautiful. While I didn’t want to grow up to be a nurse or join the Army or become blond, I did want to be a badass. I wanted to make being the only woman at the table matter. I wanted to be fierce, fiery, and formidable. I wanted to laugh and drink and be able to step right into professional mode, no matter the profession, when duty called.

She was also hilarious. She pulled pranks with the best of them. And she swung a mean right hook in Rosie’s Bar.

There are so many memorable moments. About halfway through the series, there was a Christmas episode featuring a young soldier with fatal injuries. BJ, Hawkeye, and Margaret tend to him, missing the holiday party, trying to keep him alive so his kids didn’t think of Christmas as the day their father died. As the clock ticks down, the soldier dies before midnight. Hawkeye walks up and changes the clock setting declaring time of death to be 12:05 AM December 26. It is a somber gesture, Margaret – ever dutiful, ever a good soldier – reflects that it will be the first time she’s ever falsified a record as she slowly wipes the blood from her hands. At that moment when she acknowledged the greater good, she had transformed. There was no doubt she would falsify the record, not even hesitation. Just simple acknowledgement.

From what I’ve read, Loretta Swit had a lovely life where she did good things and was able to enjoy the fruits of her amazing work on MASH.

She was in the pantheon of female characters in the 70s whose growth in aspired us – Edith Bunker, Mary Richards, Alice Hyatt, Willona Woods. There are others, but these stand out to me. They were the adult women in my young life, they set the bar for aspirations and growth and fierce. And chief among them was Loretta Swit’s Margaret Houlihan.

Rest in peace, Loretta Swit. You helped us come to grips with so much tragedy and trauma. You made tremendous strides for women. You changed television for the better.

‘Over hill, over dale, Our love will ever fail.’