Anyone else see the army idiot on BBC Breakfast this morning?

Probably I would have thought that military training involves such bottom-up overcoming of people's natural instincts - to question orders, to obey their reflexes, to run away very fast etc - that overcoming the ingrained urge to pull out chairs for ladies would be relatively simple

I can totally understand that if you took a team of men who'd trained and worked together and then suddenly chucked a woman into the group, the dynamic would alter. But if they'd trained together from the off? And if women in frontline roles became routine? If there were an equal number of men and women in the team?

'But he never once referred to them as women. They were "females". '

This drives me batshit. I've never come across anyone who says 'males' and 'females' instead of 'men' and 'women' who wasn't a huge stinking misogynist. You're not talking about biological specimens, you're talking about people FFS!

at 'mixed agenda'. Sounds like he thinks women come from Venus

Oh, he was a total prat!

My DP is in the Army. He is not sexist in any way, in fact he is the opposite. We have argued this point before!! There are studies that show that in a high stress, life/death situation men will subconsciously behave differently in the presence of an all men team than in a mixed team. This unintentional behaviour can put the rest of the team/its objectives at greater risk. This does make me uncomfortable but if it is the case then where should the line be drawn? Should lives be put at increased risk just to prove a feminist point?

You'd need to have amazing balance to carry a heavy load on your head, whilst yomping over rough ground and with both hands free ready to fire your rifle.

Perhaps if you'd been brought up doing similar from toddlerhood, you'd stand a chance, but I doubt it's achievable for others.

"Females" It probably took years of meeja training to get him to stop saying "ladies".

In Africa men and women carry heavy weights on their heads as a matter of course.

Surely there is, by virtue of it being THE ARMY, no 'mixed agenda'? They're all meant to be fighting for the same cause?

I was looking for that study which was on the news recently about lighter people being able to carry more (or summat). But I agree, fitness is more of an issue than sex (I recently had to take one end of a 136kg load, and can't imagine having to carry it more than a few feet!)

totally unrelated, but while googling I came across this. It seems carrying on your head, with the right walk (even up to the 60kg loads!), is the most efficient way to carry stuff www.md.ucl.ac.be/iepr/loco_rec6EN.htm - I can just see them heading of on their fitness tests now!

But he never once referred to them as women. They were "females". I then proceeded to rant at DH about how he couldn't even give them the basic courtesy of treating them as fully human.

Women already serve alongside males, although not capbadged infantry the Army considers all its troops Soldier 1st. Therefore the logic of cohesion does not stand up. The biggest issue will always be one of fitness (an infantry soldier will carry around 60kg) that is not to say a woman cannot carry that kind of weight of course. Hope that makes sense