[storm]

(02-02-2013 08:57 AM)bacon Wrote:  

i defer to an article fred reed wrote a few years back
http://www.fredoneverything.net/MilMed.shtml

From that same article,

Quote:

My friend Catherine Aspy graduated from Harvard in 1992 and (no, I'm not on drugs) enlisted in the Army in 1995. Her account was published in Reader's Digest, February, 1999, and is online in the Digest's archives.

She told me the following about her experiences: "I was stunned. The Army was a vast day-care center, full of unmarried teen-age mothers using it as a welfare home. I took training seriously and really tried to keep up with the men. I found I couldn't. It wasn't even close. I had no idea the difference in physical ability was so huge. There were always crowds of women sitting out exercises or on crutches from training injuries.

"They [the Army] were so scared of sexual harassment that women weren't allowed to go anywhere without another woman along. They called them 'Battle Buddies.' It was crazy. I was twenty-six years old but I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself."

It really seems to be a common misconception, not a delusional rationalization. After all these years of grrrl power most people just think girls are - if not as tough - then not much less tough.