We are required in this day and age to believe that "a girl/woman can do anything a boy/man can do". It's the modern feminist catechism. Somewhere along the way of our cultural deterioration over the past half century, gender equality of value (as the Bible teaches) has degenerated into enforced gender equality of result. Or "a girl/woman can do anything a boy/man can do". And when that proves not to be the case in actual on-the-ground practice, then either the results have to be falsified back into parity or the standards have to be lowered after all.
That is not to say that that feminist adage isn't true most of the time. Certainly it is in any intellectual pursuit. Both genders can be physicists or neurobiologists or engineers or microbiologists or lawyers or accountants or <AHEM> politicians or sales reps or actuaries or whatever. There will be a woman president of the United States one day (if Barack Obama ever leaves and the country's destruction at the hands of its enemies can be tarried long enough). It just won't be Hillary Clinton. Carly Fiorina, perhaps? Could be, could be.
But when it comes to specifically physical occupations requiring strength and endurance, like firefighting or infantry combat....not so much. Certainly there are some individual instances where some women can meet the same physical standards as their male counterparts, but they are the exceptions to the rule.
This used to be known as common sense. Which was one perfectly valid reason among several why women weren't allowed to be firefighters or join the Marine Corps, which is infantry combat by definition.
Which helps explain the results of this latest Marine Corps study on the topic:
A Marine Corps study has found that ground units made up only of men perform better than units with men and women.
According to the study released Thursday, women were injured twice as often as men, aren't as accurate at shooting and have a harder time removing wounded troops from the battlefield.
The study found that women who had been through infantry target school were less accurate at hitting targets with M4 rifles than men who had not had the schooling.
Men hit targets 44% of the time, while women hit targets only 28% of the time.
Men were able to move faster carrying gear than women and could throw their packs over a wall, whereas women had to have help getting their gear over....
The males' rate of injury to muscles, tendons and ligaments was 18.8%. It was 40.5% for females.
So, to sum up, generally speaking, men are bigger and stronger than women. To which only one word is needed in retort: Duh! What the frak did the Marine Corps think was going to be the result of such an idiotic study? Unless there really is a First Amazon Division (the REAL "Big Red One" - oops, my apologies, I started channeling my inner Trump by mistake), it couldn't have turned out any other way.
And yet President Mom Jeans has decreed that all branches of the military be fully integrated (all fifty-eight genders, remember) by next year. What's wrong with this picture?
I'll pedantically go ahead and say it: As Rush Limbaugh likes to put it, the purpose of the armed forces is to kill people and break things. Can women perform most of the same (non-physical) tasks as men in today's hi-tech military? Absolutely. Should they be allowed to try out for more physical combat roles? Absolutely. Should they be shoved into Army and Marine infantry units anyway despite not making the physical grade? Absolutely not. An integrated Marine infantry unit will not only have its combat performance degraded, but it will suffer more casualties not just from the women's greater propensity for injury but from their male "buddies'" having to come to their rescue.
And understand that I haven't even broached the topic of the different and divergent instincts that influence each gender - men are more aggressive, women are more nurturing, etc.
Bottom line is, the military, given its purpose, HAS to be a meritocracy, because the very survival of the country may depend on it. Any female Marines that prove themselves the physical equal of their male counterparts, more power to them. But the Corps cannot afford to be hobbled by the First Penelope Pitstop Division.
I'd mention the First Caitlyn Jenner Division, but my stomach isn't settled enough for that tonight.
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