I was stunned to come home Thursday night exhausted from a very long, hot day at work to find an incredibly sexist diary on Daily Kos with the #rescuedtorecommended tag.
The diarist is male, but I was stunned to see that many of the folks recommending the diary were female. Baffled really.
The gist of the diary was that women have been demanding equal treatment in the military and boy oh boy, they are getting it now. “Careful what you wish for" the diary said. There was an inference that women were going to be injured or worse; that an “entire generation that got told “you can do anything” is about to be wiped out”.
One of the, kind of, sort of, premises of the diary was that new physical requirements are the Army’s way of dissuading women. That wasn’t backed up by much detail but women’s physical shortcomings were pointed out in a variety of different, not so, subtle ways.
That diary is currently on Community Spotlight and I remain baffled and incredibly disappointed that this is what TPTB have chosen to spotlight from our incredibly diverse and capable community.
The diary did have some highlights, some wonderful comments coming in to speak up for women.
From Northwatch:
In the Canadian Forces, all occupations have been open to women for the last 30 years, with one exception--submarine service was opened up in 2001. So, all military operations since the mid-90s, including all the years in Afghanistan.
No significant issues reported. Maybe Americans are just special?
Bobs Telecaster pointed out the different skills women have...
Well, we’ll see.
A more holistic physical assessment program will eventually make sense. Women do have some physical advantages over men, and we don’t yet measure for them — they can endure food/water privation better than men, have higher pain tolerance, perform better in high altitude, and less likely to become aggressive in interpersonal conflict, reducing the risk of unit cohesion falling apart.
Militaries the world over use women in pretty much every role, quite successfully. The Kurds are renowned for having the fiercest women warriors on the planet — the YPG, whose valor and effectiveness are famous.
It is not rocket science.
Skookum seemed to be feeling a bit like I was...
These are “problems” only to people who want to see them as problems. I look at your list & don’t see “problems” at all, only some facts of life not unlike those women have been dealing with since the beginning of time. Instead of getting all worked into a lather about how hard it’s going to be for women because problem problem, why not step back & let it work itself out — and maybe, you know, help a bit by offering legitimate solutions instead of “problems". Sorry if I sound a little testy, but I put up with guys like you actively seeking problems instead of solutions for 40 years. It lost its amusement value after the first 39.
There were a lot of other good comments but I want to focus on one by Christy1947:
In a volunteer army, there are women who have no problem with combat, and a number of them are highly visible back home already, running for office in both parties. What this does is allow those assignments for those with the temperament and teeth for them, who like that stuff the same way men who do it do. There are and always have been some.
There are a lot of women running for office, with and without military experience, especially a lot of Democratic women. Check these women below who are doing heavy “dead lifts” in the political arena; running for office to flip Virginia blue this year, 2019.
BEVERLY HARRISON — DELEGATE FOR VA 15 TWITTER FACEBOOK WEBSITE DONATE
Ann F. Ridgeway for Delegate #HD30 — WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER DONATE
Michele Joyce for VA HD-64 — Twitter Donate
Mavis Taintor Delegate for VA 33 — WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER DONATE
Trudy Berry for Delegate VA61 — Facebook Twitter DONATE
Virginia - Fairfax County School Board, At Large Karen Keys-Gamarra — Twitter Donate
Sheila Bynum-Coleman for Delegate HD66 — Facebook Twitter Donate
Elizabeth Guzman VA HD31 — Facebook Twitter Donate
Missy Cotter Smasal VA SD8— Twitter Donate
Virginia Smith SD15— Facebook Twitter Donate
Shelly Simonds VA HD94 — Website here Twitter Donate
And then there is Valerie Plame...
You can find more women running in elections in