Quote:
Originally Posted by soopaman2
In war, man is brought to the most primal of instincts, which explains the high amount of wartime rapes, throughout any war in history. Just look at how German women killed themselves to avoid the Russian army retaliations, or the rape of Nanking by Japanese soldiers.
Anything with a vagina would be nothing more than an impediment, yes that sounds incredibly mysogynistic, but it is not my intention. Men get extra sensitive over a woman falling in combat over another swinging "jimmy"
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On the other hand, Soviet experience of women in combat in WWII frequently throws a wrench into this alleged historical inability of women to perform. Certainly not all women, and certainly not all of them were equally capable, but the Eastern Front provides many examples of women in WWII who fought on par and in some cases better than men. There are several exceptional cases of women as combat troops in front line units, as tank drivers, attack aircraft pilots. There are very large numbers of Soviet women who distinguished themselves as partisans and saboteurs, nurses and other frontline support troops, bomber pilots and air defense crews (i.e. these are roles they performed often, not rarely). There are also whole schools and units of women night bomber pilots and women snipers who, arguably, outperformed all-male units in the Soviet effort.
What does that say as a precedent, then?
There is, of course, the other side - the Soviet army was hardly a professional one (that is, it was a war emergency situation) and hardly dealt with political issues and rules in the same way as the modern-day US army does. But I think the difference here is one of motivation and politics, not necessarily ability. A woman who wants a US army career and social acceptance is probably not motivated by the same things as someone fighting for the survival of their country in a war emergency. It's nonsense to suggest that a woman in combat is always a liability, however. There are many historical cases where they proved themselves to be assets, rather, and the study of the Soviet WWII efforts shoots down a lot of these myths.