Gymno

succumbing to peer pressure

Monday, February 27, 2006

So apparently one of the things Schlafly said that I thought was false turns out to be true - it is illegal for US women to officially hold positions of active combat in the military. What. the. Fuck. Where have I been? How can this still seriously be illegal?

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The key phrase there is "active combat". Though I find that phrase holds little meaning if you're in a "support" role on the front lines of a combat zone. You're just as likely to die as an infantryman when the shells start coming down.

~S.

12:36 PM  
Blogger Megan said...

Exactly. And this may just be a misunderstanding on my part, so I hope I'm wrong, but it seems soldiers receive different training for 'active combat' vs. 'support.' So there are women (and men) who are 'just as likely to die' but are lacking the training - in the women's cases because it's illegal for them to be in combat roles!

Also, Schlafly (and those like her) claim that 'radical' feminists hate men, yet isn't she the one devaluing men by saying they're expendable to things like the draft and active combat whereas women are not?

12:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hrm...I have to assume that Support is trained how to stay alive while supporting Active Combatants of war. It may even have a higher priority in their training than in the ACs -- like how lifeguards are, in a sense, trained to make their own life a higher priority than the drowning person's, since (if they let get knocked out by the person's thrashing, or something) then there is no one to save either of them, and they are in really deep poop.

4:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

um.. its wed.. not mon..,.. where the blog? i want more. im addicted and dying over here!!!

9:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some research:

"In the United States military, women can serve on combat ships, to include command. However women are not permitted to serve on a submarine. The issue of submarines is rarely debated, since there is literally no privacy on a submarine, where space is very limited. Women are barred from serving in Infantry, Special Operations, Artillery, Armor, and Foreward Air Defense. Women can fly military aircraft, but make up 2% of all pilots in the US military. The issue has been contentious in America since World War II when women were killed in combat in sizeable numbers for the first time.

The case United States v. Virginia, where the Supreme Court ordered that the Virginia Military Institute allow women to register as cadets, gave women soldiers a weapon against laws which (quoting J. Ruth Bader Ginsburg) “denies to women, simply because they are women, full citizenship stature --- equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society.”"

~S.

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, and here's a website you might find interesting:

http://www.militarywoman.org/issues.htm

Be sure to check out "why we leave".

~S.

2:07 PM  

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