She nearly laughed at his response. "Male or female has nothing to do with it."

Even all these decades later, the military still had shades of sexism she had to deal with (however unintentional). She learned well enough which to ignore and which were just misinformed. "Where I'm from, anyone suggesting someone 'embrace the darkness' is their way of saying 'just die already'."

Well, a polite way of saying that anyway.