Sexism vs. Racism

[Aceflyer]

Ace, Finland, if one is a man, one shouldn't have fears about joining the military.

 

No offense Aileron, but I think that's an overgeneralized stereotype. I don't think all men in the US should be expected to have the courage to join the military merely because they are male.

 

just because there are sex differences doesn't justify discrimination. In the armed forces, for example, the average man would make a better soldier than an average woman. however, there are some women that make exceptional soldiers so there's no reason to ban them from it. Additionally, there's some men who suck at soldiers. There's a continuum on both, but the average is shifted. This explains why only 20% of the armed forces are women; we shouldn't try to achieve a 50/50 distribution. Same thing with gays... some people think that if we allow open gays in the military all the flamboyant stereotypical gay guys will sign up and ruin unit cohesion. But the gays who will join aren't going to be like that, just like girls like paris hilton don't sign up either... we shouldn't strive for an equal distribution, just equal opportunity.

 

As for racism vs sexism, I think sexism is more tolerated, but less severe. Few cultures have tried to kill off all women, whereas racial cleansing has been relatively widespread.

 

I agree entirely, BaK-.

 

To sum it up: I am annoyed how you people feel perfectly fine telling the Army how to run the Army when its the Army's !@#$%^&* on the line and not yours.

 

Women certainly don't belong in the Special Forces, as most men aren't strong enough for it. As for the non-elite combat branches, our military is still of the small numbers/high quality style, so the men in the combat divisions still need to be in tip-top shape. Women biologically can't make the bar.

 

While I respect your decision to join the military, and salute your courage, I don't think there's anything wrong with civilians analyzing the military's policies. Heck, the US military is led by a civilian: the President of the US.

[AstroProdigy]

Women certainly don't belong in the Special Forces' date=' as most men aren't strong enough for it. As for the non-elite combat branches, our military is still of the small numbers/high quality style, so the men in the combat divisions still need to be in tip-top shape. Women biologically can't make the bar.[/quote']

I'm sorry are you using sarcasm to argue that sexism is worse than racism or are you serious?

 

Um' date=' Astro, Obama didn't lose Pennsylvania out of racism. Obama lost Pennsylvania because he insulted Pennsylvanians on what became national television. I mean, that was the dumbest political move seen from anyone so far in this race, and it is nothing short of a miracle that he survived that statement. Generally when you insult someone, that person doesn't like you for it and when you insult a group of people, those people are disinclined to vote for you. If I were running McCain's campaign, I'd run an ad campaign based upon that video clip.

 

You know, Ann Coulter defines "racist" as "Anyone who disagrees with a liberal". That's the second time I've seen you use that definition this week Astro.[/quote']

Sorry I can't live up to Ann Coulter's high standards of objective thinking but when a large minority in those states openly admits that they're voting for Hillary based on race and you'd better believe a lot more do so, but are too embarr!@#$%^&*ed to admit it to pollsters I'll choose to ignore Ann Coulter's oh so rational approach that you like to praise and choose not to be ignorant to it. If you ever bothered to read what the full quote was with an objective head you'd realize he was actually right on the money with that statement. McCain doesn't need that to go negative. He can just blame Obama for high oil prices and would rather bath in the blood of dead troops (SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!! SUPPOOORT THEEE TROOOPSSSS!!!!!!) than be inconvenienced. Oops he already does that. Considering McCain parrots all that "troop surge worked" bull!@#$%^&* and refuses to remove them from harms even when the Iraqi prime minister asks for it while at the same time opposing funding for troops to be able to get educated after their service and have a decent life for their service then I don't believe he has the interests of the troops in mind. Then again I don't know what he believes at this point since he and his campaign keep throwing contradictory messages and his opinion on these issues depends on the day of the week.

 

Anyway if you're thinking about joining the military now and going overseas 6 months from now may i suggest waiting for the elections before you do something like that. With McCain you're probably going to go to Iraq and the way he has no idea how wars work you'll probably have to deal with Sadrist and indigenous Sunni insurgencies simultaneously and no matter what you believe I don't want to see more people put at risk for some rich old men who need to be richer.

 

I considered joining the military after Afghanistan, but I was too young and then we invaded Iraq based on lies and I realized if I joined the military I wouldn't go fight Al Qaeda (something we essentially gave up on doing when Rummy didn't feel like sending the troops to catch bin Laden in Tora Bora when he had the chance based on a personal distaste for Tenet) in Afghanistan, but instead would be sent to Iraq to shoot at civilians because some old men wanted to reap hundreds of billions in profits and drag both Iraq and America into an abyss to do it.

 

If you join the military I don't see how you expect to go to Afghanistan. This !@#$%^&*umes a massive troop redeployment from Iraq to Afghanistan which would only happen under a President Obama and even then that would take time and you'd likely go to Iraq first. It makes no sense to do it when leadership at home has no idea what its doing so you'd just be risking your life for nothing. Just don't do it you'll regret it.

[PaRa$iTe]

As has been said before, sexism is an old issue. And it concerns people who're considered "us". Racism is aimed at "them"; it's much easier to strike down upon apparent attacks at "them" than at "us" - the latter is ridiculous, I mean, we are doing great, everyone can see that! Not only that, but differences between sexes have been deeply integrated into the Western culture; we're BROUGHT UP to be different. Because of this, even some women - especially in the Bible Belt - support a sexistic structure. Also, there's the whole sex thing, encouraging a view where men and women are different creatures. This is why sexism isn't generally viewed upon as as big an issue as racism, which is more obviously just color hatred. The past of racism might also be a reason - slavery, genocides and such are now obvious wrongs even if the subjects wouldn't be human, causing people to realize much more clearly how bad racism can be.

 

As I see it, in today's society, they're pretty much equally bad. The reason I speak out more against sexism is because racism isn't as OFFICIALLY an acceptable at!@#$%^&*ude. I find it ridiculous how women get less paid for doing the same work as men, yet reactions are limited to "steps will be taken so that their salaries will be nearly the same in 15 years' time". At least here, racism is more stealthy - different-looking people just don't get the job, and some other reason is given to get rid of legal problems. This is just as bad, if not worse, but way less obvious.

 

Regarding the difference in body fat, it's not necessarily a disadvantage for women, since body fat can be used as an energy source (allowing women to up their endurance). Other than that, men tend to have a physical advantage (yay for hormones).