Gender Studies

But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
And said dear boy I'm gonna make you a man
Well I'm not the worlds most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man 
And so is Lola
--Lola, The Kinks

 Take these broken wings
You got to learn to fly,
learn to live and love so free 
--Broken Wings, Mr. Mister 

My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancers? 
--Human, Killers  
____________________

The issue of females entering the combat arms strikes to the core of what it is to be male in America. Participation in those three MOS's has been one of the last frontiers of purely male endeavor, and it is Ranger's position that it is a societal and psychological good that it remain so.

Men are born from and cared for by women.  We are suckled at the breast and are taught in primary school by predominantly female teachers. The female influence dominates the first 10 years of most male's lives.

High school offers a smattering of male influence in the form of shop teachers, coaches and usually math and science instruction (hard-hitting males in the fine arts tend to go onto college-level teaching.)  Ranger understands this is a broad brush, but it is his experience.

Then, if our choice is to join the Army, we now get female instructors, leaders and commanders.  And then ... we get married.  We are supposed to be men and a pair of gonads, but where is the male influence?  Sixty percent of children today are raised in fatherless households, so the male example is a negative one.

At least in my day we could assert our manhood by going Airborne, Ranger or Special Forces -- the last bastion of male identification and camaraderie.  If this last redoubt goes the way of the dinosaurs, men will have naught to explore their male identity qua man but to revert to his mancave carved out of the garage; if he is lucky, he can keep out the creeping influence of chintz which is he is required to endure in the main portion of the home.

Are we men? Are we women?  Are we complimentary, commensal, oppositional, or are we all the same, as is one feminist theme?  Ranger would like to think he is not interchangeable with a women, nor does he want to be.

Has the military and the world become one huge Equal Opportunity Employment (EOE) project? If so, will that add to the perfection of the world?