Men's Memes: Afghanistan

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Afghanistan

Number of British troops in Afghanistan = 8,000
Approximate number who are men = 6400
Approximate number who are women = 1600
Ratio of male to female troops: 4:1
Ratio of male troops to female troops killed so far: 150:1

This week 4 British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. One of them happened to be a woman, the first British woman killed there in this conflict (compared to 150 men). All four deaths are sad and to be mourned. But what is truly sickening is the manner in which the media have covered this. Predictably, all we've heard about is the woman killed. The three men have been allowed to remain face-less casualties, in fact, they have typically not even been referred to as men, but as soldiers. A typical way that this is reported is: A woman was killed in Afghanistan this week, along with three other soldiers. i.e. whenever men are the victims, their sex isn't mentioned, when women are, its highlighted.

I did a Google news search on 'British soldiers killed Afghanistan' and the first 8 stories all basically exclusively focus on the woman. The first 8 headlines:

War in Afghanistan: 'She was a truly special person who died a hero'
Bryant was on secret mission in Afghanistan
Right or wrong, we must let mothers go to war
A woman’s choice
Double standards on the frontline
Wife 'died a hero' in Afghanistan
'I am devastated beyond words - but so incredibly proud of her'
Family's tears for Sarah – daughter, wife and soldier

Its not until the 9th headline that we hear any mention of the men at all. And then the 10th link tells us that: "In addition to Cpl Sarah Bryant, 26, of the Intelligence Corps, three special forces soldiers were killed in the latest attack."

"In addition", its almost like an after-thought isn't it?

Nevermind, eh? They were only men.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: The next time some chick complains about equal pay nonsense you can ask her how many women have been killed in Afghan and other such dangerous work compared to men. You will not get a rational answer of course but it's always fun to watch them endlessly blabber their way around reality.; 11:03 pm
Peregrine John said...: Kudos to the Guardian for questioning the whole hubbub.; 2:10 pm
Anonymous said...: Let me figure this out.

We have 1600 women in Afghanistan, and they are doing exactly the same job as the men, facing exactly the same dangers, and displaying equal bravery, as we are assured time and again. And yet while men are regularly killed, it has taken all this time before just one female has shared the same fate.

The only explanation that makes any sense is that women have to be all-but immune to bullets and bombs, due to some unknown faculty or power that is totally absent from men, who die quite easily when you shoot them or blow them up.

So whatever this magical female immunity is, should we not be exploiting it to the full by ensuring that only women serve in war zones? At the same time, should we not be researching this power to discover where it comes from and how it works? And why the unfortunate Bryant was apparently the only female soldier in Afghanistan who didn't have it, or lost it at the critical moment?

For heavens sake, we have the secret of military invincibility right there in our hands - or rather in the hands of our invincible women - and we are dithering about like imbeciles, wasting our time sending useless and vulnerable men out there to try to do the job? What are we thinking of? Bring all those weak and feeble men home, replace them with power-enriched women, and watch them clean out the Taliban in next to no time and with a minimum of casualties.

Paul Parmenter; 5:49 pm
Anonymous said...: Bravo, Paul Parameter. Braveo.; 6:19 pm
Anonymous said...: Oops. I meant Paul Parmenter.

The hypocrisy in the reporting of deaths is so OBVIOUS that any feminists who professes to not see the double standard is a lying hag.; 6:21 pm

Turn of the tide: feminists begin to regret

Cosmopolitan (The women's magazine that urges women to use men for sex) Editor Lorraine Candy has a change of mind and now urges women not to have "Soul-less sex":

"We didn't feel ashamed about one-night stands...this, we thought, is what feminism is about."

70s feminist Fay Weldon now says:

"It is the fault of me and my like, who... got it wrong.

So were we wrong, we feminists, setting women free? The results have been devastating – greater than we ever imagined.

We steamed ahead, changing the world with too little caution, and I hope the future will forgive us.

The pendulum has swung too far over. But it may yet swing back again. Societies, thank God, tend to be self-righting."

"Once a man could look forward to starting a family and the dignity that came from being the provider. Forget it. At best as a man you're decorative, look after the kids and earn a bit sometimes; at worst you're a write-off. Women are elbowing the men out. The boys get anxious, the girls swagger. The male suicide rate goes up, female down. Twenty-eight per cent of us now live in single person households - a lonely and unnatural state - and most of the 28 per cent consist of young men. It is strange that it is left to a woman to suggest, in the normal nurturing way, that men start some kind of movement to promote their gender's status and self-esteem - call it masculinism, brotherism, machoism, what you want - and some mark of the success of the feminist movement, that it needs to be done."

60's feminist Doris Lessing now says:

"It is time we began to ask who are these women who continually rubbish men. The most stupid, ill-educated and nasty woman can rubbish the nicest, kindest and most intelligent man and no one protests.

Men seem to be so cowed that they can't fight back, and it is time they did."

An excerpt from an interview with Joan Rivers:

"She's not with the feminists when it comes to matters of the heart. For her, they're to blame for the current parlous state of our relationships, as depicted in these television Shows (Such as Sex in the city) and films. "I saw this coming. You cannot be equal to a man, you cannot make a man feel 'I don't need you' or 'I'll take my sex when I want it'. All these shows are so sad."

Camille Paglia :

"Women have been discouraged from genres such as sculpture that require studio training or expensive materials.

But in philosophy, mathematics, and poetry, the only materials are pen and paper.

Male conspiracy cannot explain ALL female failures.

I am convinced that, even without restrictions, there still would have been no female Pascal, Milton, or Kant.

. . . Even now, with all vocations open, I marvel at the rarity of the woman driven by artistic or intellectual obsession, that self-mutilating derangement of social relationship which, in its alternate forms of crime and ideation, is the disgrace and glory of the human species."