Yale frat incident means women can't be SEALS?

[antares]

To be fair I'm a bit conflicted in the women in navy seals thing. It's obvious on average women are physically weaker. Personally, I believe women should be allowed to try, with no change in the standards. Though with this method probably a smaller percentage of women vs men would make the cut. Or a female seal unit?

That said I thought her connection of the Yale incident with the seals was dumb. Just because people were pissed at a Yale frat dosent mean women are mentally weak.

city-journal.org/2011/eon0526hm.html

[takers401]

I don't get how she moves from Point A (women protest fraternity "pranks") to Point B (women aren't mentally conditioned enough to become SEALS). It was almost like she was grabbing the latest women protest headline and using it to make her point that women shouldn't be SEALS but then forgets the point two paragraphs in and just continued ranting about how these Yale women made a big deal out of nothing.

[Fenchurch]

I agree with the OP. Women should, obviously, be allowed to try according to the same standards.

I hate (hatehatehate) questions like "Should Gender A be allowed to do common Gender B activity". Yes, always yes. Maybe they won't be physically able to do it, but should they be ALLOWED to. Of course. A persons gender does not preclude them from trying to do/be anything.

Should women be allowed to pee standing up? Yes, it probably won't work out as well, but why shouldn't they be allowed to?

Should men be allowed to wear dresses? If the fancy strikes them, of course. Why not?

[Dinorah]

I don't see the link at all. SEALs, male and female, probably correspond to specific criteria in terms of physique, personality etc that aren't the ones of the average university student. Women unhappy with pranks doesn't equal no female can be a SEAL.

I also find the culture of pranks and hazing really depressing, independently from gender issues. Why people, who are supposed to be la crème de la crème in terms of intellect, have to demean and bully their peers systematically? Isn't it something that, in the 21st century, we can leave behind for good?

[grovelina]

I also find the culture of pranks and hazing really depressing, independently from gender issues. Why people, who are supposed to be la crème de la crème in terms of intellect, have to demean and bully their peers systematically? Isn't it something that, in the 21st century, we can leave behind for good?

This.

As far as women can't and men can't, I remember in a gender class I took in college discussing this issue. The only jobs we could come up with as a class that were sex-specific (women or men only) were just that, sex specific. Men can't be wet nurses or surrogates. Women can't be sperm donors. Everything else, a task may be predominately performed by a single sex, but never should it be mandated that it is exclusively so. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to try something they want to do. They may fail, they may succeed, but it should be on their merits, not determined by their sex.