Posted on 01/04/2014 2:41:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
More than half of female Marines in boot camp can't do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing physical standards to integrate women into combat jobs.
The delay rekindled sharp debate in the military on the question of whether women have the physical strength for some military jobs, as service branches move toward opening thousands of combat roles to them in 2016. Beginning this week, all female Marines were supposed to be able to do at least three pullups on their annual physical fitness test and eight for a perfect score. Men have the same minimum requirement but need 20 for a perfect score. The previous minimum standard for women was a timed flexed-arm hang. The new requirement was tested on female recruits at Parris Island last year but only 45 percent of women could do even three.
Now, some might say that this proves women aren’t strong. Hogwash. Women are very strong. To give just one important example, more than 100 million women give birth each and every year. It is an impressive feat of strength. Women also nurse their babies, which is fraught with problems ranging from mastitis to thrush. Women display physical strength in many ways, from athletic prowess to working jobs requiring them to be on their feet all day.
And it doesn’t prove that men are physically superior in every way. To given just one unimportant example, some large percentage of men have such a hard time dealing with the common cold that fantastic comedy sketches are written about it. (“For God’s sake, woman, he’s a man, he’s got a man cold!”)
But to state the obvious, by which I mean I’m about to say something extremely controversial, the average female is not as strong in the upper-body region as the average man. (Again: Please don’t demand I be written out of polite society for noting this truth that was universally acknowledged until roughly 15 minutes ago.) Even at my Crossfit gym, which is full of freakishly strong humans of both sexes, the men routinely outperform the women. And one of the things I love about my gym is that everyone is simply encouraged to do their work to the best of their ability.
So the problem with the fact that most female Marine recruits aren’t meeting even the minimum requirement for upper-body strength isn’t that women aren’t strong. In fact, the problem is not even that men and women have different physical strengths.
The problem is that we are all supposed to pretend that men and women are identical. It doesn’t help men, women, children or the institutions they inhabit to pretend natural differences don’t exist. And here, it’s actually dangerous. We may have forgotten in our rush to drone warfare what actual combat entails. It’s grueling and requires tremendous physical and mental strength and discipline.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos wants training officials to “continue to gather data and ensure that female Marines are provided with the best opportunity to succeed,” according to a statement from the Marines. The Associated Press then goes on to characterize the truth that “pullups require the muscular strength necessary to perform common military tasks such as scaling a wall, climbing up a rope or lifting and carrying heavy munitions” simply as a “belief” held by the Marine Corps. I wonder where they got that crazy idea. I mean, I can’t scale a wall or climb a rope but I’ve noticed that everyone at my gym who can do these things can also do a pullup. Or 20 pullups. One can read these statements and the backtracking on pullup requirements as a precursor to watering down the skills required to be effective in a Marine combat situation. The story states that if the military decides to keep some positions closed to women, they must explain why.
Success for women should not mean being viewed, contrary to reality, as interchangeable with men in all things. Men and women are both strong but strong in very different ways, both of which contribute mightily to human flourishing.
I think she’s pitching this to the gender feminists. Whether *they* have a spark left in their brain is still a good topic for a panel discussion.
It is not on there right now.
Wait, this pull-up story, or the MMA one?
This article, no.
The MMA story is a few weeks old.
Last year there was quite a media hubbub over a WNBA player who dunked twice in a game.
One has to be delusional to expect even freakishly athletic women to compare well to an ordinarily athletic man.
Let's bring it down to reality. In a ne-on-one combat situation, can she prevail? I wouldn't want to be in a rifle squad where she is the weak link.
"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe . . . " etc.
Sad. The way Obama’s hand-picked Joint Chiefs and SecDef have tried to wussiefy our military services.
I wonder what the physical capability requirements are for the Israeli women who serve in the IDF?
Is the concept of sarcasm foreign to you, or are you purposively being thick?
It started under Bush. He pushed an ultra-PC military.
Which is fine and good....Unless that is you want the strongest, badest and best on the ground. Otherwise I'm sure women are great in combat.
Me, if I'm carrying 60lbs or stuff 20 miles across some 100+ degree foreign garbage pit, filled with religious voodoo worshiping fanatics who are trying to cut my head off, I'd want the biggest badest strongest SOB's I could possibly get to go along with me...End of story...
No, it started well before that. I’ve been in long enough to know.
BTW, the IDF quickly got rid of the women in front-line units. They are in support and service support units.
With respect, ma’am, I don’t believe she is agreeing with me.
The basic premise that “women aren’t strong” because some cannot do a pull up is not worth thinking about, much less a conversation.
If she agreed with me she would never have written the article.
That’s not fair. There’s no way anyone can ever prove that I couldn’t handle having a baby as easy as a woman.
I’m agreeing 110%.
Warfare will always exist until human volition is overcome. Technology is not always and rarely a substitute for mano a mano, to have one’s adversary change their way of thinking.
I think the problem is, she wasn’t writing “to” you, a call-a-spade-a-spade kind of guy. She was writing to, or for, people who would enjoy John Semmens’ “Semi-News/Semi-Satire.”
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 America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi! |
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Oh, I love John's work. We correspond occasionally.
I confess that I missed the /s tag on this one. Too subtle for me! ;-)
This tw@t has obviously never come close to a combat situation.
Still, that doesn’t mean she can’t blather in an incoherent and ignorant way.
Gawd! Am I glad I served when I did.
They are not strong. The annals of police history are crammed with their failures but nobody acknowledges them and everyone makes believe that the pain, death and suffering they bring about doesn’t matter.
An adult male is unconscious on the RR tracks? Girl cop arrives on scene first but...she is forced to wait for a real cop to arrive since she cannot lift or move the guy. Mad dog raping and murdering a woman in her home, girl cop arrives and....she is to weak to kick in the door and too plump and weak to clear a window of glass and go thru it, so she waits for the real cops who kick in the door and sort things out (chalk outline, bloodspatter)
Male female cop team arresting NYC ne’r do well inside his apt. Suspects girl asseses female portion of team and concludes that she can take her. She is right and she gets the girl cops gun and it is used on the 6’2” male portion of the team as he is the only threat present. Think of the possibilities and probabilities along these lines and it really boggles the mind.
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