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Originally Posted by a breezy era
How do you feel the general public would react, men and women wise, if women were drafted?
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I don't think it would go very well because we have ideals we expect men and women to be like.
Men are supposed to be tall, strong and brave. With muscles upon muscles, hitting the gym daily. Think Abercrombie models.
Women are supposed to be tall, dainty, and thin. And even though their feminine bodies are programmed to carry more fat that men, the general trend in pop cuture is that you should see fat nowhere and should even be able to make out most of a woman's skeletal system. Given the right circumstances, artificial fat (silicon) can be added in places where we think it should be.
The problem is that most women and men don't fulfill those ideals. Most men are weaker either by having a smaller body or by just being overweight than they're supposed to be and most women much more robust.
Essentially, the only way the Army can make the draft seem even remotely equal and also allow women is for everyone who's serving to complete a fitness test. If you can't carry a 160 pound person X number of feet, than you shouldn't be placed on the front lines. From my perspective , I would say 50% of men fall under that category along with about 20% of women.
I also don't follow the "bullet sponge" reasoning. The current rumors about the draft say that computer people and linguists will be sought after. This of course plays particularly close to home for me, next year I will get a degree in computer engineering. I'm sure they'd love to throw someone fresh out of college with no familly (wife, children) or career into the draft. If there was a draft, the army could better utilize myself and alot of other Americans by using us as specialists and not front line combat positions.
Which of course means that there should be a much lower fitness standards for non-combatant military personell. This would seem very sexist but in all honesty, I'm sure there's many men and women sitting in hospital beds in Iraq and Germany just wanting someone to talk to. A perfect non-combatant job would be for compassionate men, or more traditionally women to have some basic medical training and just spend their day visiting with the soldiers while they are in bed. They are in the worst state of their lives, suffering from a potentially life threatening injury. Talk about life, play a game, anything. These guys are away from their loved ones and I'm sure something they don't always get is a compassionate person to share time with.
There's so many non-combat positions that would be great for men and women of all fitness levels to pick up I could go on forever. Just because we're drafting combatants doesn't mean we shouldn't also draft people who could make the military a better place.