US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has previously expressed opposition to women serving in combat, has ordered the military to develop gender-neutral physical fitness standards for frontline troops, a memo released Monday said.

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    81
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    This is especially wild when you consider that some of the sports / feats women are often if not usually better at include shooting, distance / endurance events, and withstanding high g-forces without losing consciousness, which are way more useful in a modern military than the high jump or javelin throwing.

    • HamsterRage@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      He’ll, if the requirements were gender neutral, then every astronaut would be a woman based on weight alone.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        Even biologically, men are woman if the anti-muellerian hormone is not surpressed during the fetal development.(Usually happens if the gene in males is missing or suppressed that)

    • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      2 days ago

      Being born with the appendage designed for peeing standing up is significantly more important than all that other stuff you mentioned. Simply having a uterus makes women 10x worse, duh.

      • grue@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        Well, yeah. Any uterus on the battlefield is one that isn’t back home gestating the next generation of cannon fodder.

        (It’s despicable, but I’m pretty sure that’s how these shit stains actually think.)

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      What endurance events are women better at?

      Also, I was curious about the g-force thing, but any scientific studies I could find had conclusions that there aren’t any significant differences between men and women when it comes to withstanding g-forces.

      • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        The real big one is arctic / cold water distance swimming. Women have a higher % body fat on average meaning they float better and are better insulated. Ultramarathon events overall seem to be pretty evenly matched for the most part, but that specific subset has been pretty women dominated. The g force thing applies more specifically to people who are smaller and in particular shorter, which women are on average so in that one weights being equal, no.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          Cold weather ultra marathon swimming? That’s really specific, not important for military use, (who is having to free swim for 10+ miles?) and I was having problems trying to find any specific records for cold water ultra marathon swimming. I could find ultra marathon records of swimming in general, but most of those were men.