GunsmithKitten
I'm willing to listen, but don't expect it to negate the massive a** kissing I'll get from the many other sources.
Well, he's dead, so you'd need to read it. Yes, a lot of morons kiss the a** of soldiers, but Infantry don't usually present their a** for the kissing. Every infantryman I've ever known felt awkward and even a little offended by the hero treatment and I get the impression they tend to get annoyed by soldiers who walk around with their dogtags flapping around. Being in war takes the romance out of it, and like Marlowe to The Intended, it's very uncomfortable to discuss something you've experienced with someone who has never experienced it.
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So you get a sympathy card to play in addition to the "I defended my country, soft-a**!" card. The deal just get's better and better.
Have you ever met a veteran, homeless aside, that tried to prostitute their struggles? Like above, you don't b***h about it, you don't dwell on it. You drink water and move out. How do you even play the sympathy card in tandem with the badass card?
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You realize you kinda reinforced my point even more than I intended to plead for it, right? Only the strong of mind can do this necessary s**t.
I didn't offer that up as a defense of the difference, I used it as a precedent for being the shittiest environment imaginable.
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So doing it proves you are strong of mind, and strong of body as well. I knew this, but again, you're only reinforcing that the infantry is held in the highest esteem for a damn good reason.
Strong of mind is important, but not the deciding factor in this particular difference. Strength of mind can be proven on just about any metaphorical battleground. It's the physical element that's important, and it takes a hell of a lot of physical element. As for the "good reason," for that we need to establish good reason. If peak physical prowess is what you value in a person, then sure, they're worshipped for good reason. If brotherhood and loyalty is what you value, then sure. I personally feel that it's a very impressive job, as I admire amazing physical talent as much as I admire amazing mental talent, but I'd honestly value mental fortitude more than physical fortitude.
You say esteem, but I think you mean hero worship. People worship the ideal of the soldier, and people thank soldiers for whatever service they think they've given (they give a service, but not usually what the people are thanking them for). But once that's done, we let them slip through the cracks. The job is impressive, but it's hardly esteemed. Being President has esteem; being Neil deGrasse Tyson has esteem; being the smartest person in the world (which, right now, is a tiitle held by a woman) has esteem. Being a soldier has romantic worship, and that fades out and becomes discarded.
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Uh, yes it did. If she was up to snuff, she wouldn't have been retired. Femininity, as proven with that case, sucks. It's why I fight every part of it in my being as best as I can and can afford to. They are right in saying we are too weak to defend our country.
Different means one is going to be better the other.
To be better at something is not the same as being better. Neil deGrasse Tyson is likely a hell of a lot better than me at Physics, but that doesn't make him inherently better. I may have a comparable talent for other fields that equates my utility to his.
The premise you seem to be working on is that the worth of a human being is determined by their physical aptitude. Why? Strength isn't the trait that dragged us through the evolutionary thresher. We are what we are because of the knowledge to augment our weaknesses with intelligence; to find solutions to problems we couldn't overcome with our natural power. While I agree that the worth of a person is determined by their capabilities, how do you set one trait aside as THE determining trait?
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But the most noble and testing ones go to the men, as you proved just a paragraph above. Women can't cut it when it really counts.
I know a woman who has taken care of nine kids on just her own salary for ten years. She holds a GED and works multiple jobs. Two of the nine kids are hers (their father is dead), the other seven are her sister's who is doing serious time for multiple homicide. You don't think she's just as noble and tested as any of those men? The friend of mine, the State Trooper, is hydrophobic, but she did a term of service in the Coast Guard anyway. That's power. Look how many women are out there in positions of power, in political positions and internationally-renowned television shows. Most men will not deny that women are their equals. Why does physical prowess have to be the measuring mark?
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And you don't think the opposite applies against women when MGTOW or AFVM begins proclaiming how subhuman and parasitical women are?
I don't know AFVM, but MGTOW, to me, seems reactionary. Men feel attacked, which unfortunately means we're going to attack back because that's what we're programmed to do. Take, for example, one of the guilds attached to my profile: TestosteRome. It was founded not as a Bastion of Manliness, but as a satirical reaction to an All-Women guild that was formed of prominent EDers some years ago, which regularly published very "MEN ARE DEVILS" sorts of threads. The reaction came in kind. Those people vocal enough to speak across the chasm tend to be pre-outraged, and that isn't helping to establish tolerance on either end.
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Apparently on the suffrage part,they were right. You did a good job making their case for them.
I made an argument about physiological differences in the genders. How does that have any bearing on the ability of a person to make a sound political decision? Most people, soldiers included, are lacking the awareness to make a sound political decision. Physiological differences have no effect on logic, even considering the trite hormonal argument. Men are all dumb brutes, after all, no?
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I don't know what you are, honestly. ALl you gotta do, at least in my perspective, is answer one question; what role and function should I be made to do within society?
Ideally, the function for which you show the greatest affinities and aptitudes. I can't know what that is without knowing you uncomfortably well. That question is obviously probing for gender roles, but I think we can all agree that those are a thing of the past. My two closest female friends are a State Trooper and a Lightweight Martial Artist. My closest male friends are both avid bakers. I, myself, am a teacher, a job traditionally held by women, and still very dominated by women. It's a brave new world.