Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Wrong on Women Warriors (The new policy to place women in combat units is a mistake)
National Review ^ | 01/24/2013 | Heather MacDonald

Posted on 01/24/2013 6:33:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind

We have apparently arrived at the Golden Age, free from strife and the threat of foreign enemies. Little else can explain so gratuitous a decision as to place women in combat units. The downsides to such a policy are legion and obvious; the only reason to pursue it is to placate feminism’s insatiable and narcissistic drive for absolute official equality between the sexes.

Any claim that our fighting forces are not reaching their maximum potential because females are not included is absurd. The number of women who are the equal to reasonably well-developed men in upper-body strength and who have the same stamina and endurance is vanishingly small. Because the number of women who will meet the military’s already debased physical-fitness standard will not satisfy the feminists’ demand for representation, the fitness standard will inevitably be lowered across the board or for women alone, as we have seen in civilian uniformed forces.

Feminists routinely deny Eros — except when it suits them to exploit their sexual power. Only someone deliberately blind to human reality could maintain that putting men and women in close quarters 24 hours a day will not produce a proliferation of sex, thus introducing all the irrational passions (and resulting favoritism) of physical attraction into an organization that should be exclusively devoted to the mission of combat preparedness. Reported “sexual assaults” will skyrocket, and of course it will only be the men who are at fault. Any consensual behavior leading up to the “assault” — getting in bed with your fellow grunt drunk and taking off your clothes, for example — will be ignored, since in the realm of sexual responsibility, women remain perpetual victims, at the mercy of all-powerful men. Expect a windfall to the gender-sensitivity-training industry, which will be called in both before and after the entry of women into combat units to eradicate endemic male sexism.

Even if Leon Panetta intends to keep female fighting units sex-segregated, that distinction won’t last. Feminists will complain that female-only units stigmatize women.

Chivalry is one of the great civilizing forces, taming men and introducing social graces and nuance to what would otherwise be a brutish social world. It is already on life support, but sex-integrated combat units will provide the coup de grâce. If a woman is taken prisoner, will special efforts be made to rescue her to save her from the risk of rape? If so, the necessary equality among unit members will be destroyed. If, however, policy requires that she take her chances along with the male captives, we are requiring men to squelch any last remaining vestige of their impulse towards protection and appreciation of female difference.

I am not aware of any comparable crusade to create gender-integrated football teams. At least America knows what’s really important.

— Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: combat; military; women; womenincombat
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 last
To: ansel12

My posts are the arguments they will use to justify women in combat. We all know about the physical differences and the lowering of standards. I am against the policy myself.

Once they make up their minds about something they will use all of these to sway public opinion. Reality in combat is a different story.

None of these new technologies are in production, they just have prototypes.


61 posted on 01/24/2013 1:18:09 PM PST by USAF80
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: USAF80

No they aren’t, they are just silly and repetitive.


62 posted on 01/24/2013 1:23:27 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

OK. Lets re-engage in 2015 then.


63 posted on 01/24/2013 1:30:08 PM PST by USAF80
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: USAF80

I don’t know what that post was about either.


64 posted on 01/24/2013 2:04:27 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: microgood

What an Army - from macho to queer with the stroke of a pen - now it’s lesbians take the point


65 posted on 01/24/2013 4:16:45 PM PST by westcoastwillieg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: microgood

What an Army - from macho to queer with the stroke of a pen - now it’s lesbians take the point


66 posted on 01/24/2013 4:16:56 PM PST by westcoastwillieg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

What an Army - from macho to queer with the stroke of a pen - now it’s lesbians take the point


67 posted on 01/24/2013 4:21:04 PM PST by westcoastwillieg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Robert Heinlein - 1973
Notebooks of Lazarus Long
from
“TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE”

“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplus age, excrescence, adornment, luxury or folly which can—and must—be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a “perfect society” on any foundation other than “women and children first!” is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly—and no doubt will keep on trying.”


68 posted on 01/24/2013 9:57:01 PM PST by servo1969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

My last comment meant we will have this discussion again in 2015. This is when “women in combat” will be implemented if it is approved.


69 posted on 01/25/2013 4:38:20 AM PST by USAF80
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: USAF80

Yet another weird post that doesn’t make sense.


70 posted on 01/25/2013 11:54:46 AM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson