Women in Combat

[Shay]

While we're on the kick of female equal rights, chew on this.

http://www.blogher.com/rick-santorums-p ... point-view

[chex]

I would like to castrate Rick Santorum with a rubber band.

[Shay]

I like how he tried to use the Israeli military as a point of great reference for why women are not on the front lines, and then the news reporter threw back at him that while the Israeli military does not allow women on the front lines, they do allow gay men to be on the front lines. Ope, suddenly the Israeli military is not a true testimate of a great army and then gets all defense, Oh I don't know why everyone's mad at meeeeeeee. It's the government's fault! BLAH BLAH BLAH. That guy can go suck a smurf.

[chex]

Suck a smurf? How the hell does that work?

[Shay]

Dude! OH EM GEE. Apparently this has been out for a while, but I only recently stumbled upon this. Everyone, go do a Google search for "Santorum" and read the first link that comes up.

[chex]

Yeah, that's Santorum's "little Google problem." Love it!

[Jonny Boy]

What a frothy mess!

If women want to fight in the front lines, let them. I don't want to, all the power to them. Just so long as they're not naked.

[Wesley]

I think all jobs -- military, civilian, professional, anything -- should have requirements that must be met, regardless of gender or any other type of discrimination. If I apply to be a 7 foot tall person, I will not get the job since I am only a little over 5'9" (that is 69 inches, by the way...) If a man or a woman try to be a construction worker and cannot lift the supplies, then neither one should get the job. If a man or a woman is willing to risk their own life and potentially take another's life in the service of their country, and they prove to be mentally and physically capable, then they should be allowed to do it.

The article by the female vet is skewed a little too far in the "Yes we can!" direction. Yes, there are strong women out there. Smart, capable women. Not all women are like this. Just as not all men are big strong oafs. Each situation needs to be reviewed on a case by case basis. Pushing too hard in the other direction can be counter productive.

[Clovvach]

Honestly I think that, military aside, we need to stop classifying men and women, and we need to look at humanity as a whole. Strong, weak, smart, dumb, can-handel-tough-situations, can't-handel-tough-situations, big, small, it's not determined on your gender. I know "statistics show blah blah" well maybe men as a WHOLE are slightly physically stronger than women as a WHOLE, but that doesn't mean any given man will be stronger than any given woman.

[Wesley]

Due to hormones and genetics, men have higher muscle density, and therefore have higher intrinsic strength than a woman of the same size. I understand the ideas of universal equality, and it sounds great. For many people, myself included, men and women are not equal. They are different. Neither is "better" than the other, they are just different. I am fine with that.

[Clovvach]

They are different. Neither is "better" than the other, they are just different. I am fine with that.

I think, however, that men and women are treated WAY TOO differently these days. Not all men do this, not all women do that. Society has come down completely to men vs. women sometimes, and frankly, it's ridiculous. Sure a man of the exact same size, AND HEALTH of a woman will be stronger, but take a man who is say 5' 11'', who spends all of his time on the couch eating KFC, and has severe weight problems vs. a woman who is 5' 11'' and gets exercise who has no weight problems, and healthy muscles, definitely stronger than the man. Now imagine they lined up to do a job that would take a whole lot of physical strength. Would it be fair to treat the woman differently than this man because men as a whole have denser muscles than women due to genetics? Of course not. Yet this is how some people seem view it. I'm sure that there might be a situation where it is OK to treat them differently, but that's ONLY VERY LAST resort, wich means, that there are no other determining factors. Other than that, we need to treat ourselves like humans and less like men and women.

[Jonny Boy]

That's febreeze still cause people with weight problems are looked upon less favorably than just about anyone on the planet. It's still socially acceptable to start screaming obscene insults at them.

[Clovvach]

Wait, what do you mean??! I have nothing against people with weight problems :O

[Wesley]

I think you are overreacting, Clov. It is not great, but it is not as bad as you seem to think it is.

[Clovvach]

A man who is running for president is suggesting that women shouldn't be able to fight in front line combat, he thinks "we should keep men and women separate because men will do this and women will do this, etc. etc." it's classifying, and it's not good. Not for a person running for president. You may think that this is not a big deal, and it's all an opinion, but I think that get is getting pretty bad.

[Wesley]

It is still just one dude, who happens to be kind of an idiot. Do you think like he does? No? Well, neither do millions of other men and women. No need to let it rain on your parade.

[Clovvach]

He maybe just one, but there are many many others. And society seems to classify men and women, in different ways, and in more subtle ways. I mean I see people who don't care about when a woman rapes a man as much as they would if a man raped a woman. I've seen a bunch of girls laugh at a man's penis getting chopped off, when if a man did a similar thing to a woman, all hell would break lose. Many people I even know say that they are influence by a person's gender in ways that they shouldn't be. Just the way that society keeps men and women from each other, it pisses me off.

[Jonny Boy]

In the middle east they do female castration. It's sick and yeah it happens every day.

[Clovvach]

Exactly, it's a pretty big deal.

[bella]

Isn't that generalizing the topic too much? People will always be categorized, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, handicapped people, there are countless examples. Overcoming stereotypes when you have been brought up like that is hard to do because people are seldom even aware of it.
Violence towards men or women, regardless of their gender, is another topic.
That this guy is a possible candidate is worrying because it shows he must have a crowd of followers.

And that google search was disturbing.