The media have finally discovered the bald truth about the feminists’ campaign for gender equality. Thanks to Shannon Faulkner ‘ s lawsuit to get herself admitted to the Citadel, one of the toughest military schools in America, the whole world now knows that, when the feminists say they want to be treated just like men, they really mean equality in the goodies but special privilege to avoid the unpleasant parts.
After successfully persuading the court to make the new discovery that the 14th Amendment guarantees her right to be admitted to this traditionally all-male school, Ms. Faulkner sent her lawyer into court to plead for a crucial special privilege, namely, to be allowed to keep her hair while all 2,000 Citadel men are required to have theirs shaved off.
Since the judge had bent over backwards to be favorable to Ms. Faulkner throughout the trial, she was stunned when he ruled that the college was “perfectly within its rights” to require her to live through the same humiliating 10 seconds in the college barber shop that all the other cadets experience. We can almost hear her crying through the words of her attorney: “She will look strange, she will be stigmatized! You are forcing her to undergo what is considered degradation!”
But the court didn’t “force” her to undergo anything. She did it to herself by getting Janet Reno’s Justice Department to demand that her personal wish to enter the Citadel be held paramount to the successful and honorable tradition and practices of the 152-year-old school.
If Shannon goes ahead with the head shaving and enters the Citadel, the next news we hear from Charleston, SC, will probably be a charge of sexual harassment against either the school or the male cadets, or both. I hope the Citadel men realize that they are not up against a rational argument, but against a troublemaker who has figured out how to use the theatrics of media and the courtroom to advance the feminist agenda.
The escapade of Shannon at the Citadel is just a microcosm of the feminization of the military that is going on in the U.S. Armed Services today. But whereas the Citadel men are fighting like men in the face of the feminist attack, the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, under the command of Clinton appointees, are for the most part in full retreat.
Nearly every week we hear a new news story about Pentagon decisions to “open new slots” and “expand career opportunities” for women on ships and aircraft. Even the Marines have surrendered and announced that they will put women on warships, with commanders telling the press this will “give them more flexibility.”
If there is one good thing that could come out of the Shannon-at-the-Citadel story, it would be an expose of the double standards that are used for military men and women in an attempt to conceal the fact that women cannot carry their own weight in military tasks. Here are a few facts uncovered by the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces.
In the scoring of physical tests at the U.S. Naval Academy, a “B” grade for women in the 1.5 mile run is roughly equivalent to the “D” grade for men. The women’s “A” grade in push-ups is the same as a “C” grade for men.
On the field obstacle course, men jump over a wall 2 feet higher than women have to jump. In answer to a question, it was admitted that even the lowest-ranking woman in a given class could claim one of the 16 reserved Navy pilot positions over male midshipmen of higher class standing.
In the Marines training regimen at Parris Island, males run 1-1/2 miles in 13-1/2 minutes at the beginning of training, while women run 3/4 of a mile in 7-1/2 minutes. At the conclusion of training, men run 3 miles in 28 minutes, while women run 1-1/2 miles in 15 minutes.
Only one woman out of 100 can meet a physical standard achieved by 60 out of 100 men. Putting women in combat slots means trading off 60 men for the prospect of getting one.
At any given time, up to 10 percent of Navy women are pregnant, and the figure is 10 to 15 percent in the Army. Since pregnant servicepersons must be kept within six hours of a medical facility, this causes great disruption at the time of unit deployment.
Anyone who understands human nature could have predicted the current significant drop in male enlistments; real men don’t seek to serve in a feminized military. This year, women will comprise 20 percent of our Armed Services, so the pregnancy problem is bound to get worse.
Several years ago, feminist Robin Morgan boasted to the Phil Donahue audience that “we are becoming the men we once wanted to marry.” Of course they are not becoming men. It’s all a charade to advance the radical feminist agenda. Congress should hold a full hearing to expose the double standards for men and women in our armed services.
