The psychological draft
The psychological draft of boys begins before, and continues after, the legal draft of boys. It begins with unconsciously teaching infant boys to endure pain when we cut an infant boy s penis without anesthesia but not an infant girl’s clitoris, with taking longer to pick up our boy children than our girl children when they cry3 (thus signaling to only our sons that complaining won’t solve their problem); with violent sports for boys but not girls. . . Combined, these might be called the psychological draft. It starts with boyhood and continues throughout adulthood.
The double standard of electabillty
When Margaret Thatcher’s belief in a strong defense was coupled with her sending hundreds of men — but not one woman — to their deaths in the
Falkland Islands War. she experienced such a huge surge in popularity from both sexes that polls which had just predicted her a sure loser in the upcoming election were soon predicting her a sure winner. No headline stated "Woman Remains in Office by Killing Men ‘" Or, "Thatcher Called I lypocrlte for Belief in Strong Defense While Using I ler Gender as Excuse to Escape Fighting." When Thatcher used men to kill for her, she was not called a wimp, she was called stronger, she did not become less eligible to serve her country, she became more eligible.
In contrast, even though Dan Quayle did serve his country in the National Guard, just not in Vietnam, he became a laughing stock; and when Clinton objected to the Vietnam War and pursued legal means not to participate, he experienced an initial 20 percent drop in the polls that would have knocked any other candidate out of the primaries. We can say it was because of the way Quayle or Clinton bandied the situation, but why did no one even ask Geraldine Ferraro for her war record — and then criticize the way she handled evading the draft? How did she evade the draft? Via the sexism of exploiting female privilege.
When a man who served in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and followed his conscience Is identified more as a draft evader than as a Rhodes scholar while a woman who took advantage of traditional sexism is seen more as a pioneer than as a sexist, we have some rethinking to do Specifically, why do we blame our male politicians for causing war, then blame them for not wanting to participate in war?
Throughout the world, our basic message is if you are bom male, then a willingness to serve your country (e g, as vice-president or president) is not good enough Only men must be willing to die before they may serve in another way.
As mentioned above, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher all sent men to their deaths at rates not dissimilar to those of the average male leader; that when women led, it was still men left dead; that equality was at the top — not at the bottom. Wars will not end via female leaders. Wars will end when any country that has significantly more men dying in combat than women is held in violation of international law as it would if it drafted only black men, only Jews, only women, or only gays. War will end when, worldwide, men’s lives are no more disposable than women’s.