What is Patriarchy?

Post Reply New Topic

Backpacking is not the same as carrying a soldier's gear; the body armor alone often tops 20 lbs, which is carried entirely on the shoulders, and depending upon the role you could be talking anywhere from 7-20 lbs of gun (they like to hang a lot of extra stuff on them these days), on top of all the gear carried in the rucksack.

^ Yup. By all means, I think women are capable of doing excellent in a variety of active combat roles...

...just not as grunts. They'd be honestly terrible at it, I hate to say it. Stick a bad b***h in Bradley, however...

I will grant that I wasn't thinking about body armor, but women carry around babies all the time that way as much or more than a gun.
Wrt. tests of lower body strength as proportional to body weight (not total lower body strength, which the average man will beat the average woman at; I specify the proportion, because it's the upper body strength/weight proportion that precludes women from doing pull-ups, not total upper body strength):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSrW_Ju0VSs
Men are likely to be at a disadvantage as compared to women when moving in a crouch, because they are proportionately top-heavy.

wrt the link, here's an alternative:
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ ... g-fit.html

Carrying a baby around and wielding a weapon in battle are not even remotely comparable.



Interesting enough, but at the end of the day it has to be applicable to combat-related activities. If it's not then who cares?



If you can cite this with some kind of empirical evidence, I'd be interested in seeing it. However, I've actually known and talked to real soldiers who have real combat experience, and they can tell you that even humping it for a few hours leaves your entire body feeling sore, including the shoulders and traps. Once again, civilian backpacking isn't remotely comparable to a military march.

This apparently becomes an even BIGGER issue once the fighting starts, especially if you're swinging a 7+ kilogram weapon around.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNzxdxTM5UI[/youtube]


The "Donglegate" issue where a man was sacked due to the actions of Adria Richards at PyCon reveals a stark problem with "women in technology" which few are willing to discuss. Female behavior in the work environment is too often toxic. Similarly, male behavior enables this toxicity to occur, and is too often stupid.

"An examination of the unsupportable claims made by the charities Women's Aid and Refuge and by agencies in the US, that pregnant women are at greater risk from domestic violence.

• Violence Against Women Act - VAWA (US)
• The technique of sub-categorising statistics to mislead the public"


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSKzl9lboCE[/youtube]

Think I must have a feminine build, pretty sure I've got more lower body strength than I've got upper body strength.

They are if you're saying 'a woman doesn't have the strength to carry a 20 lb object.'


Do you not get that it's just been demonstrated? Women have a lower center of gravity. Lower center of gravity = better balance when moving (or trying to pick something up) from a crouched or bent position.

Oh, I absolutely agree with that. I just don't think that the difference there is gender-specific.

Something that I was thinking about yesterday afternoon, which I realized that I'd forgotten to mention and should: where upper body strength does make a dramatic difference is hitting and throwing: i.e., primitive hand-to-hand combat. For every extra little bit of arm/shoulder strength a man has, a woman has to be that much more skilled of a fighter than he is in order to come out equal.

Not sure how important that is if you only pick tall, strong women and they're fighting against 5-foot tall, malnourished tribesmen, though.

Honey, those guys weren't sacked because of Adria Richards' actions, they were sacked because she reported their actions. Grow a little hair on your gonads and own up when it's your own gender's responsibility.

most people do. Men have proportionately more upper-body strength than women of the same height, though, and have higher centers of gravity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TOzHr6jXk[/youtube]This is how the patriarchy works these are the leaders of the Patriarchy! They are noticing the effects of feminism bringing hope and such! The leader gave a suggestion that's been going on since the dawn of humanity!

The thing is, you don't usually go charging around a battlefield with a baby.



A youtube video isn't convincing enough for me. Preferably you'd show me a rigorously-conducted, peer-reviewed study on the topic, but I'd be willing to accept less. Got anything better than a youtube video? You're talking to a scientist, as it were. We have rather high standards of evidence.

The main thing that's bugging the back of my head about this is that the IDF, protecting a country that is literally surrounded on all sides by enemies that hate them and would stop at nothing to see them driven into the sea, has made great forays into allowing women into combat. If women really had a significant advantage in this area for the reasons you've stated, the IDF of all countries in the world would be the ones willing to give their female troopers an earnest shot at proving themselves.

The fact that the IDF doesn't have scores of female grunts running around suggests to me that it's ultimately physical rather than sexist reasons. That said...they DO have scores of women running around as pilots, snipers, combat medics, etc. I get the feeling the reason is because those are the roles women are more than capable of excelling at.



I think it is, because in addition to lower back and leg strength, you also need ample amounts of arm, shoulder, and trap strength for a military march, on TOP of needing those muscles to endure the rigors of combat.



Fortunately for women in this case, hand to hand combat isn't incredibly common in modern warfare.

So, do you think it was appropriate for those men to be fired for making that joke in that context? I think the point is that most reasonable people do not think that was justified.

Ahem.

2 individuals were fired in the so-called "Donglegate" - Where do they find these labels?

The first was an (unnamed) employee of Playhaven. He was fired for making inappropriate comments at PyCon.
http://blog.playhaven.com/addressing-pycon/

The second was Adria Richards herself, an employee of Sendgrid. She was fired for failing to to do her job (instead of uniting the developer community - which was her job function - she divided it instead).
http://sendgrid.com/blog/a-difficult-situation/

Anyway, some back-story on Adria Richards. Apparently, she is a repeat take-offender. No wonder she got fired.
http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/

[img][546:800]http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/100/a/5/yoko_littner_cosplay_by_aliceblacfox-d6138wt.jpg[/img]