terrshee's Diaryland Diary

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Short Slightly Feminist Rant on Barring Women from Combat

Oh, the irony and the hypocrasy.

This morning I had to take the car into the shop, therefore had to take the bus into work from the dealership. I got to witness no less than three gentlemen of color offer their seats to ladies (of three different backgrounds) who might otherwise have had to stand. It was a display of civility one does not often see, much less at 6:30 in the morning. I was thoroughly approving of the action.

Yet, a short while before I had been steaming over some bozo Republican committee chairman wanting to ban women from combat. How dare he try to take back the gains women have made towards equality in the military? How dare he try to objectivise "mothers and daughters" as if they are unfit for the same sort of sacrifices made by men due to their gender and/or sacred role as nurturers and bearers of children? As if men are automatically suited to war and women are not? Perhaps he worries that if men in the military see women as equals they won't feel so much like defending them?

It infuriates me because it is a step way back. Why can't we let everyone make that decision for themselves? The military is about combat. Its servicepeople get that. And troops don't get sent into combat unless they are trained and phyiscally able. What should gender matter?

There was an unfavorable editorial in The Examiner yesterday about how many Democrats are more like Europeans than Americans. Well, let's hear it for being cosmopolitian thinkers rather than a bunch of provincial rednecks. Let's get past the stereotypes and hidebound notions and start dealing with reality.

I love good manners and courtesy, but I also love my freedoms. And I don't want to see any woman barred from any activity of which she is capable. We need good soldiers and citizens of every type.

7:37 a.m. - 2005-05-19
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