Recently I had a friend say something that shocked me...so I decided to get a second opinion. She said that her psychology professor had said that we don't have instincts. HUH??? We have instincts or reflexes or whatever you want to call them but I couldn't believe that, first of all that was ever stated & second of all, that she believed it. To put this in context, we were talking about women in combat, well, we were debating it which is something that I love to do. I love to debate because I like to hear other people's side & their reasoning behind it. I don't do it to get new opinions because, let's face it, I'm pretty set in mine. However, I am always open to new ideas. Anyway, I am "old-fashioned" because I don't think that women have any place in combat. Now before everyone starts ramrodding me for my opinion, let me tell you why. First off, I don't think that we're physically built for it. We tend to be the strongest in our lower body & combat requires a lot of upper body strength. It requires lower body strength too but when shooting a gun or "fighting" someone, it's mostly the use of your upper body. This is also why I don't think women should play football, be police officers or be firefighters. Remember though, this is just my opinion. I also think that we're too emotional to be rational in certain situations. Take the movie "Courage Under Fire," I consider this to be a prime example of why women don't belong in combat. I know, it's a movie but there are some parts of it that are true to life. I am a woman & I know how emotional I can be and sometimes I tend to be irrational because of my emotions. Men are not as much this way, not to say that they aren't at all but less so than women, generally speaking. Men can "turn off" their emotions where women don't usually have that ability. (Again, I am speaking generally here so please don't ramrod me!!!!) I have a friend, a woman, who is military & she said that she had a hard time with some of her training because she had a simulation where she had to shoot a kid with a bomb strapped to him/her. (I can't remember if it was a boy or girl.) Anyway, instead of just shooting, she tried to talk to the kid & ended up getting blown up. She is a mother. I'm not a mother but I don't know that I could shoot a child, regardless. I think that women have certain instincts when it comes to children that doesn't allow them to look at the situation completely rationally. Now, there are exeptions to every rule & situations that make this situation less definitive. For example, a woman on her period might react differently, we're all a little bitchy around that time in our lives. A woman that has lost a child would react differently, there are all sorts of extenuating circumstances for this. I am generalizing though. Anyway, this all boils down to the question of instincts...do we have them, or don't we???
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2 comments:
Sarah,
Women are in combat and have been for a long time. They do fine. This is from my husband who was in the military for 25 years. I've been shooting guns since I was a kid (Dad was a cop and taught me and took me to the range with him from the time I was 12.) I am a better shot than my husband. Nobody (men or women) wants to shoot a kid. If lives depend on it, you do it.
I wish I had more experience with guns, we do own them & I pretty much know how to use them but at some point am going to take a gun safety class, mainly because I want to carry a concealed weapon, at least in my car anyway. As for the lives depending on shooting a child, that makes sense, I still don't know if I could do it, having never been put in that situation but I would have to tend to agree with you. I just think I might hesitate, and even a split second can be too long!
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