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| A 30-year-old army major is making waves in Taiwan for joining the growing ranks of women in uniform posing online. |
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| Major Fan Chun-chen is a communications officer at the Missile Command of the General Staff Headquarters. |
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| She exposed her most private side on her blog in June |
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| She is at least the third woman in the military to do so in recent years. |
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| Popular opinion is divided over whether or not a tough line should be drawn between such antics and their profession - especially when it comes to people in the military. |
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| Almost everything Maj Fan has to offer can be seen in a number of the 1,500 photos on her blog. |
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| The photos are grouped under themes such as "OL (office lady) style", "Lounging at home" and "Extreme narcissism |
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| Most showed off her cleavage and bare legs. |
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| Some pictured her apparently almost nude, wearing only fishnet stockings that did not exactly cover her backside and with her private parts covered only by her arms |
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| I just love to show off myself," she wrote in the blog, without concealing the fact that she is a military officer. |
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| I love myself so much. No more pretences," she wrote. |
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| As of last week, her site had attracted more than 20,000 eyeballs. |
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| The ever-alert Taiwanese media splashed some of the provocative pictures in the top-selling Apple Daily and on television |
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| Mr Ma Wen-chun, a legislator with the ruling Kuomintang, said soldiers are still soldiers even after work, and should be held to higher standards. |
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| "How would she be able to lead male servicemen after this?" he was quoted as saying. |
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| In response, Defence Ministry spokesman Luo Shao-he said on Sunday that Maj Fan had not broken any military rules because she had posted the pictures on her personal blog and had not revealed any secrets - at least of the military kind. |
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| But he added that military personnel should be mindful to separate their private lives from work, and be "responsible" towards society. |
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| The following day, a disciplinary hearing at the Missile Command ruled that Maj Fan had "damaged the image of the military through her personal acts, as well as neglected the basic requirement to be poised and prudent for servicemen". |
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| The officer claimed that the photos were not meant for public view, and she had forgotten to lock access to the albums. |
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| She shut down her blog last weekend in the wake of the media attention and was given just a minor warning. |
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| But many people took her side after the ruling, calling the military sexist and old-fashioned. |
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| Maj Fan, who joined the military after graduating from senior high school, is not the first female soldier to provoke an attack of "shock and awe" on Taiwan online. |
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| In 2009, Ms Chen Hsueh-wei, a sergeant with the Combined Logistics Command, was slapped with warnings for uploading to her blog a picture of her lifting up her army fatigues to reveal her bra. |
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| The photos, originally posted on Chen's blog, also showed her and two female colleagues sticking out their middle fingers in a rude gesture, as well as two other military women preparing to French kiss. |
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| Other female soldiers also posted series of pictures of themselves dressed in uniform and sexy outfits. |
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| Sociologist Peng Huai-chen observed that it has become common for young Taiwanese to post sexy self-portraits on the Internet. |
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| "There is no right or wrong about it," he told The Straits Times. |
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| "But the latest incident tells us that in an era of all-encompassing media and virtual networks, we need to be careful to separate the public from the private, and be mindful of prevailing social considerations. |
