My cousin is being deployed, and this is my favorite photo he’s sent me so far. She won….
I love this.
This is my new role model lol
Now try and tell me women are too weak to serve on the front lines
It’s not about being physically weak.
What the hell does that even mean
Exactly what it says?
Right. Women are mentally weak. All the time. Every woman. OK.
It’s not about weakness. No one but calcified misogynists who refuse to do their research field that argument these days. It’s not about women at all. It’s about men, and the idea that they’ll find women ‘distracting.’
The former senator from Pennsylvania [Rick Santorum] was concerned that male soldiers would just want to protect fellow women soldiers during a fight, explaining, “when see a woman in harm’s way…It’s natural. It’s very much in our culture to be protective.”
There are also concerns that women will interfere with group bonding and cohesion – the same arguments that long interfered with the integration of African Americans and gay people into the military.
This Forbes article features the Pentagon’s own reason: “According to a press release, “the department recognizes there are practical barriers that require time to resolve to ensure the services maximize the safety and privacy of all service members while maintaining military readiness.””
In other words, the reason has nothing to do with women having shortcomings. It’s just that organizationally the military is not prepared to accommodate women. What kind of accommodations, you ask? Things like medical staff trained to handle gynecological problems, body armor that actually fits them, and enforcement of laws and policies to effectively protect women from sexual harassment and assault by their own fellow servicemen.
There’s also the fact that women have been serving in combat for the entire history of the US. They just haven’t been serving in official capacities, which means they get all the fun of risking their lives and none of the recognition. Furthermore, with the style of warfare changing, the concept of ‘front lines’ is becoming outmoded. When you are fighting against guerilla opponents, who may be in front of, behind, or to the side of you, you’re on the ‘front lines’ so long as you’re anywhere in the war zone.
Finally, there’s, oh yeah! The fact that if you do happen to believe women are somehow ‘too weak,’ well it sucks to be you, because the Pentagon lifted the ban on women in combat at the beginning of 2013 and is working to have the military services ready to begin actively accepting women in combat roles by 2016. The Marines began testing integration scenarios early this year.
If you’re concerned that men won’t accept women in combat roles, or men will assault female soldiers, or men will get distracted when women are hurt—I submit to you that that is a problem with men in combat. If men can’t control their emotions enough to keep their dicks in their pants or their act together in the face of fellow soldiers being shot at, then they need additional training before they’re allowed to handle machine guns and bombs.
And not to put words in his mouth, but I suspect the gentleman in the OP’s lovely photo would agree.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1pQS2SW