I don't think we belong in combat, not because any one is physically weaker or inferior...not even because women more likely to be raped by their own service men then in captive. I don't think we belong there, because men do not know how to function when they see a women being beaten. They cannot handle watching it. They are more likely to break to spare a woman of pain.
Also a man that saves my life in combat is someone I'm likely to develop feelings for, the bottom line is that I have a hard time turning that off and that effects the discipline of the teams. I've seen it with men that are separated from their spouses and a single guy with a girlfriend in their unit sneaking off. It creates dissention, anger and animosity. So they say you're not supposed to do anything period, in a combat zone. It happens.
The physical inferior crap is garbage. IF the military wanted their service members to train on physical fitness 6hours a day or require a gynmast level of athleticism, they would require it. They require fitness, but at the end of the day some will train more and raise their own standards, adapt to tactics more. Some make better decisions under pressure.
I'd rather get my ass kicked then to make decisions on 1/2 hour sleep and waking up to find out the perimeter has been breeched, we've lost 4 soldiers pulling guard duty and redeploy things that changed dynamically...resources you thought you had 2 minutes ago are not there. I hate making decisions under stress on little to no sleep. It's horrible...I'd rather low-crawl through manure.
Historically, men see us as objects of desire, for their pleasure, the loathe taking orders from us. They may get along with us as people, respect us if we run faster, etc...but they resent it. They want to be heroes for us. It goes against what they are. Resent women enough it morphs in to a different kind of pathology and I've worked for them - they are openly misogynistic and believe we're there for their morale or to be their assistants.
That said, the same obstacles happen in civilian life. The difference, we're not both armed, we're not sequestered in a box somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
I could also kick the crap out of someone that would attempt to violate me, but at the end of the day - if the risk is there more often then not, why put myself there if I am not wanted there in the first place?
I could easily say I enjoyed military service. I like what it represents, serving something bigger than yourself. I also don't think it's the same organization that it once was, where a call to service was a honor to your country. I see a lot of leaders with limited education in positions of god-like power full of self-entitlement.
A friend of mine was 5 months pregnant jumping out of airplaines and the 82nd airborne never knew it. IT was only when she could not get her harness across her belly that she relented and told her command she was pregnant. The reason, she felt, they treat women like $hit and worse if you're pregnant. No one would tell her she had to jump, but she felt she had to. Which some think admirable, I think its nuts-batshit crazy to put your fetus at risk because of what some cock-sick swinging jerkoffs with limited insight believe. Though Perception is king and it affects us all. She was right, the moment she told, some bottom-feeder said that she just pregnant because she did not want to jump (yes after having jumped out of a planes up to her being 5 months pregnant). SHe think she was a badass, I think she was deeply insecure...but I understand the pressure.
I don't regret my service, but I question it all the time.
