melanie4
Member
- Mar 13, 2008
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Edit: I bolded the link I wish to discuss in case you don't want to read all my crap opinions on the subject and end up missing it in your boredom from reading such a lengthy post
For those of you who do not know I finished up a four year enlistment with the Marine Corps in March. I was also infantry and I'm still a bit in the "last four years of my life" mindset and sometimes I come across a little foreign in my posts and attitude because of it. That said, my opinions about this are probably not going to be what is expected from a "dumb jarhead."
As I was finishing up my enlistment homosexuals were a big issue that got changed in the military. I honestly didn't see a big "no homosexuals in our military!" attitude on the grunt side of things, but I'm sure it was there. I think the people in the military who have had the time to dedicate to protest and opinion and aren't so stressed with their life that they couldn't care less about such a subject to do such a thing aren't really the people whose opinion is worth hearing. When it really comes down to it I think there is an amount of people who don't like it and are against it, but aren't going to go out of their way to try and stomp the issue out because a job needs to be done and the subject of homosexuality really isn't that important (which is not meant to offend anyone who orients themselves as homosexual).
Currently though, a big subject is women in the infantry. In the Marine Corps they are going through a testing phase of putting women through Infantry Officer training to see if they can hack it (lolz at that, since they put them in the position of people who do the least in the infantry to test their ability to cope . . . officers).
The only reason I'm against having women in the infantry is because of how we are constructed socially by gender roles as a society currently. Women do not have to meet the same physical standards as men in the military, as well as I've seen plenty of women take advantage of being women to get out of certain duties or get their way during my time in because of this. I believe there are women who can cope with it and perform the job well, no doubt. The drill master from my bootcamp was a female and she could probably out squat, out run, and out fight probably the majority of people on this site. She was one scary woman and I believe fully that she could perform the job of an infantryman with no problem. But she is also a minority of women. When talking about filling a large role in something you need the majority of people to be able to go through and be capable, and because of what we expect out of the majority of women by social standards today I think there is a lot that needs to change before they can mentally, as well as physically be able to cope with the stresses of an infantry position. It's a very different world and it has been dominated by men forever, and I believe the obstacles that need to be overcome aren't in the military itself, but how we treat gender roles as civilians in the formative years of our children.
That's my opinion in a nutshell and anyone reading can take it for what it is. I'm not against women in the military because they are women, but because of the mentality of people today based on gender roles that are ingrained in us as we grow up. Things are slowly changing which I think is good, but I don't think it has changed enough to be able to implement the changes the military is testing out currently.
Then I came across this link on one of the websites I frequent. http://earlystart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/10/usmc-captain-katie-petronio-why-women-shouldnt-be-in-infantry/?iref=allsearch
Aside from the obvious power of having a woman officer say, I think she brings up some pretty valid points (only because I'm not familiar with woman physiology being that I'm a man). Would the cost of maintaining outweigh the benefit of implementing this policy? Obviously a lot more study needs to go into it before such an opinion could become legitimate and her personal account does not blanket all women. If any women are reading this, what do you think about her views on this? Do you share the same concerns as her?
I'm not really looking to have anyone stomp around and give a equality/civil rights speech with this subject, nor am I bashing on women or want to hear why men think women aren't capable. I think when it comes down to it women are just as capable as men but because of how women and men have treated each other through thousands of years in history, that the social constructs that we have prevent them from reaching their full potential both by oppressive tactics by men/organizations and to some degree a self-defeating mentality by women themselves (which is mostly to blame on the oppression).
I am interested in hearing legitimate opinions from women themselves if they think the women from the previous link has a legitimate opinion, or if anyone has some other good reason beyond "because women should be in the kitchen!" mentality. I hope that some sort of informative discussion can go on here that can help me build a better opinion and have more knowledge in the subject and it not dwindle down to the thread being locked due to inflaofftopictory comments.
So that said . . . . what's your opinion on all this?
For those of you who do not know I finished up a four year enlistment with the Marine Corps in March. I was also infantry and I'm still a bit in the "last four years of my life" mindset and sometimes I come across a little foreign in my posts and attitude because of it. That said, my opinions about this are probably not going to be what is expected from a "dumb jarhead."
As I was finishing up my enlistment homosexuals were a big issue that got changed in the military. I honestly didn't see a big "no homosexuals in our military!" attitude on the grunt side of things, but I'm sure it was there. I think the people in the military who have had the time to dedicate to protest and opinion and aren't so stressed with their life that they couldn't care less about such a subject to do such a thing aren't really the people whose opinion is worth hearing. When it really comes down to it I think there is an amount of people who don't like it and are against it, but aren't going to go out of their way to try and stomp the issue out because a job needs to be done and the subject of homosexuality really isn't that important (which is not meant to offend anyone who orients themselves as homosexual).
Currently though, a big subject is women in the infantry. In the Marine Corps they are going through a testing phase of putting women through Infantry Officer training to see if they can hack it (lolz at that, since they put them in the position of people who do the least in the infantry to test their ability to cope . . . officers).
The only reason I'm against having women in the infantry is because of how we are constructed socially by gender roles as a society currently. Women do not have to meet the same physical standards as men in the military, as well as I've seen plenty of women take advantage of being women to get out of certain duties or get their way during my time in because of this. I believe there are women who can cope with it and perform the job well, no doubt. The drill master from my bootcamp was a female and she could probably out squat, out run, and out fight probably the majority of people on this site. She was one scary woman and I believe fully that she could perform the job of an infantryman with no problem. But she is also a minority of women. When talking about filling a large role in something you need the majority of people to be able to go through and be capable, and because of what we expect out of the majority of women by social standards today I think there is a lot that needs to change before they can mentally, as well as physically be able to cope with the stresses of an infantry position. It's a very different world and it has been dominated by men forever, and I believe the obstacles that need to be overcome aren't in the military itself, but how we treat gender roles as civilians in the formative years of our children.
That's my opinion in a nutshell and anyone reading can take it for what it is. I'm not against women in the military because they are women, but because of the mentality of people today based on gender roles that are ingrained in us as we grow up. Things are slowly changing which I think is good, but I don't think it has changed enough to be able to implement the changes the military is testing out currently.
Then I came across this link on one of the websites I frequent. http://earlystart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/10/usmc-captain-katie-petronio-why-women-shouldnt-be-in-infantry/?iref=allsearch
Aside from the obvious power of having a woman officer say, I think she brings up some pretty valid points (only because I'm not familiar with woman physiology being that I'm a man). Would the cost of maintaining outweigh the benefit of implementing this policy? Obviously a lot more study needs to go into it before such an opinion could become legitimate and her personal account does not blanket all women. If any women are reading this, what do you think about her views on this? Do you share the same concerns as her?
I'm not really looking to have anyone stomp around and give a equality/civil rights speech with this subject, nor am I bashing on women or want to hear why men think women aren't capable. I think when it comes down to it women are just as capable as men but because of how women and men have treated each other through thousands of years in history, that the social constructs that we have prevent them from reaching their full potential both by oppressive tactics by men/organizations and to some degree a self-defeating mentality by women themselves (which is mostly to blame on the oppression).
I am interested in hearing legitimate opinions from women themselves if they think the women from the previous link has a legitimate opinion, or if anyone has some other good reason beyond "because women should be in the kitchen!" mentality. I hope that some sort of informative discussion can go on here that can help me build a better opinion and have more knowledge in the subject and it not dwindle down to the thread being locked due to inflaofftopictory comments.
So that said . . . . what's your opinion on all this?