I’d look among the triathletes to start with.
Or, they could start including training along the lines of “don’t rape your teammates.”
Just a thought.
Or, y’know just “don’t rape anyone”.
Baby steps, man. Baby steps.
Damn - after reading his posts in this thread, I was sure Klaatu’s join date was gonna be within the past 2 months. I’m getting worse and worse at this. Guess I should start paying attention to usernames.
Hmm, not sure why the links didn’t work for some, but yes they are bodybuilders and not necessarily SEAL candidates.
I was responding to Rune’s statement that “I just don’t think you’d ever find a woman that can measure up physically to the top 0.1% men”, not suggesting that physical strength or a built up body were the only basis by which a SEAL candidate would be measured.
I wasn’t responding to Klaatu’s larger argument(?) at all, because he already admitted he was just trolling, and since the Navy brass is sure women will pass the SEAL training without modification if they are allowed to try, the rest of the thread is a moot point.
Well, the military has had lower physical training standards for women than for men well…forever. They even do pushups differently. And that’s fine with me.
I do agree with the OP that if the military is considering lowering it’s limits to allow for the integration of women into it’s most elite units (even if they are segregated) that it’s a bad idea. However, if a woman can in fact pass and graduate from the standards that are currently in place, then why would anyone care? Hell, I’d be rooting for such a woman to defend our nation!
I’d rather try to rape a pit bull than a female SEAL.
And I find it ironic that a female SEAL might have to put up with sexism/whatever even being a consideration. That’s the whole point of fracking being a SEAL. You can take anything.
Wait, the OP made an argument?
I’m sure as hell not doing it, so more power to them. I’m a delicate flower.
Well just from the Marcinko books, you have to cross a swimming pool length-wise fully submerged. That’s doable. Now do it again this time holding a bucket full of rocks in either hand. The technique is if you can’t swim with that load in your hands, walk on the bottom of the entire length. Then there’s the dirty name. Several wooden pilings driven into the ground of irregular height and irregular spacing. Stand on the top of one piling and jump to the next. Either the next piling is too high or too far, so you end up with busted shins, slashed arms, and a body full of splinters.
Several other tasks too long to relate but the thing is, the male applicants aren’t supermen. Everyone’s a klutz because the tests are really meant to make you fail the first time. Do it again if you want to become a SEAL that badly.
Question is: how had the OP arrived at his conclusion? Have women been tested?
Exactly.
Well played. Let’s note a couplet from the end of the poem that very specifically relate to our whiny friend:
" So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her "
It’s a little too on the nose, maybe, but I liked it.
Being since I am well aware that at no point in my life could I have ever in my wildest dreams made the Seal Standard, and being that I am comfortable in my sexuality, my humanity, my grasp on reality and my lack of control over the Universe…
I have absolutely no issue with women trying out for the Seals as long as there is no reduction in standards. The ones who make it will be tough as fucking nails and their existence in no way challenges my manhood or my ideas about the Universe.
This isn’t about the average man or the average woman, and you’re a fool if that’s what you have in mind when you say women can’t do this. This is about the exceptional people who can meet this standard.
People can put up with lots of bullshit. That doesn’t mean we purposefully put it in their way.
I’m just talking about an average. Some groups might have two or more graduates. Some might have none.
To me, the positions should be open to anyone who can meet the standards, regardless of whether they have a penis or a vagina. I wouldn’t artificially lower the standards to get women in and I wouldn’t artificially raise the standards to keep women out.
Having sat on my non-triathlete ass and viewed the insanely gruelingBUDS documentary videos on Youtube showing what a Seal class endures I am pretty sure the number of athletic women who could stay with the men in those classes all the way to the finish is so vanishingly small as to be statistically irrelevant. Even in standard ground combat roles women suffer crippling joint and stress injuries at considerably higher rates than men and this training is another order of magnitude beyond that.
Female triathletes would easily handle the running, but the Seal running usually also involves carrying and handing massive weights and requires very significant upper body strength and resilience.
This isn’t to question women’s motivation or desire, there are simply more physiological limitations to what a woman’s physical frame can handle with respect the insane pounding and stress the training requires.
There are quite probably some women that can do it but I would reckon that (if the training requirements stay the same) it’s going to be one in tens of thousands not one in hundreds or even one in a thousands.
Agreed. But they should still be allowed to have a shot, no? Once anyone gets to that elite level of hardass, I doubt being forced to live/shower/etc with the boys will even be an issue.
On the other hand, some women who want to join the Seals badly enough to go through the hellish training, might also be willing to take some anabolic steroids in order to cope with the strength requirements…
The Marine Corps opened up the Infantry Officer School to women a couple of years ago. I don’t think that they have had a woman graduate yet.