Newsgroups: soc.women
Subject: Re: More on Women in MalePreserves
From: rivero@mdcbbs.com (Michael Rivero)
Date: 11 Nov 92 14:55:59 PDT
Distribution: world
Organization: M&E (Division of EDS), Cypress CA

In article <1992Nov8.202926.27454@wetware.com>, drieux@wetware.com (drieux, just drieux) writes:
|> aaron@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
|> Aaron, please post any details that you can find.
|> 
|> 1. There was a 'tv story' on about Forest Fire Fighters in the USA,
|> and I was 'just shocked' to notice that these organizations had
|> NonMalePersons on the front line.
|> 


  You make a great deal of enthusiastic polemic but neglect two
important issues.  You neglect to mention that the fire services (like so
many other civic services) were put under pressure to add women to the 
"front lines", and that in some cases, requirements for strength were lowered 
because of a lack of "qualified candidates". That's what all the AA and 
"leveling the field" really means, lowering the requirements because a 
candidate is female or a recognized politically oppressed group.  That's
sorta like lowering the safety requirements for frozen O-rings because we 
need an on-time launch to look good in the press (and we know where that 
kind of thinking got us).

  To return to my primary argument drieuxjustdrieux, any survey of 
high school and college athletic studies shows that, on average, women are 
both smaller and physically weaker than men. That means they cannot carry 
as much equipment or carry it as far as men, and that's the same whether 
it's heading towards a forest fire with a high pressure hose, or stalking 
deep in country with an M16. All of the politically correct  "leveling the 
field" special programs will hide that fact, but they cannot change it. 

  Yes, there are exceptional women who can outperform average men. There
are also exceptional men who outperform _everyone_.  But these are
individuals who are outside the average, not representative of it, or else
the Olympics (with seperate men's and women's events) would not be as much
fun to watch.

  I mentioned the O-rings on Challenger above, and it's pertinent, because
admittedly, most of the time the differences between male and female 
firefighters/soldiers/police won't be obvious, especially in a society
striving to hide them. But a major emergancy, when maximum effort
is required, is a lousy time to find out that lowering the requirements
may not have been such a good idea.




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|  Michael Rivero rivero@mdcbbs.com  "Middle-aged Mutant Ninja Animator" |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|     This is my last week at EDS (mdcbbs.com) and since I am planning   |
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|    colorful time!                                                      |
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Newsgroups: soc.women,alt.abortion.inequity,talk.abortion