First woman to fight on the frontline

[napmeistergeneral]

Transgender woman becomes "first female" in British army to serve on frontline.
Link is to the guardian but covered by other outlets also.
www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/17/transgender-soldier-is-first-female-to-serve-on-the-front-line

I don't doubt it's an incredibly hard and scary thing to be a trans woman in the army and for that chloe deserves support and praise. But I'm afraid I still feel unconvinced by the "first woman" claim.

AIBU to feel uncomfortable and unconvinced about firsts for women being claimed by trans women?

[venusinscorpio]

She so does. Wow.

[Prawnofthepatriarchy]

Love the "nice, warm bath" paragraph. Ooh, she's got a lovely way with words!

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

Oh my, I have spent my night on this blog. Pure brilliance

bornnotmadeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/born-male-assigned-intensely-annoying/

[MorrisZapp]

Best blog ever.

[venusinscorpio]

That is such a magnificent blog post. Thank you so much for posting it.

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

It was Itsallgoingtobefine who posted it originally, so thanks to her

[icyfront]

IBelieve - thanks for posting that link - just amazing. Bookmarked the blog for further reading.

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

I love this woman

bornnotmadeblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/man-up-bear-down-pregnant-people-and-invisible-mothers/

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

I know WankingMonkey, it's a bloody hilarious blog

[WankingMonkey]

Here's a look at how men are in fact mothers. Well it made me laugh..

Thats one of the best blog posts I have ever read. So much sense. Also humour...though no doubt said sense and humour is LITERALLY KILLING TRANS WOMEN EVERYWHERE!!!111!!!!!

[BeyondASpecialSnowflake]

Indeed

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

Ah. Thanks.

But doing this also bumps the threads so perhaps a bit counter-productive?

[BeyondASpecialSnowflake]

NotAnother has name changed and is posting a 'counter' on each of the trans-related threads, only comment in that name being "#2", "#3" etc.
Goady and I have reported as such.

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

?

[BeyondASpecialSnowflake]

[NotAnotherTransThread]

Developing my own easy counter.

[IBelieveTheEarthIsFlat]

Beachcomber
Woman: adult human female belonging to the biological sex born which has a female reproductive system and chromosomes who was raised as a girl child in male supremacist society and socialized in the system of gender

But you see, even in that, you are wrong it seems.
Here's a look at how men are in fact mothers. Well it made me laugh..
bornnotmadeblog.wordpress.com/category/come-the-fucking-revolution/

[mimishimmi]

I doubt he's the first transgender person in the military. I've been doing research on drag makeup and it seems quite a few drag performers, some of whom were transgender, served in the navy, army etc.

I don't the powers that be care about the gender identity of the people they put in harms way

[pontificationcentral]

Although to be fair, I haven't tried. I think three kids later and my potential musical fountain days are well and truly over.

[pontificationcentral]

Oh look, the fitness tests are just the minimums. I lost count of the times I was accused of cheating during basic training because the fragile masculine egos couldn't handle being beaten by a woman. It's all relative - a shit tonne of women are fitter than a whole heap of men. And the standards required are all fairly limp for the vast majority of roles. And in most places you have the option of working to maximums if you want - so a butt load of women are beating the paltry minimums.

[Willow2016]

Of course the army seem to be 'forgetting' the women they let join up during WW1 'pretending' to be men and were 'believed' without question because they needed soldiers for the front!

[GarlicMist]

I've known a few women in the TA who take their training very seriously and can exceed all the standards set for military men. They also have such fantastic pelvic floor control that they can do tricks with their vaginas

I bet Chloe can't make a musical fountain using her fanjo ...

[MangoMoon]

Don't know about army or navy, but fitness tests in RAF are gender specific.

For eg

Bleep test pass
= level 7-1 for woman under 30
= level 9-10 for man under 30

Press ups are less for women, sit ups are less for women.

The bleep test levels correspond to VO2 max levels which are higher for men (due to muscle mass/lung capacity etc).

I've known a few women who can exceed the male 'pass' level, but they were very fit indeed.

[Nataleejah]

The thing against women in infantry is not just about physical fitness. It also implies psychological factors for men, things like men would naturally act to protect a woman, while endangering themselves and the whole team. Or that there is a high risk that a woman would be raped in case of capture.
I wonder how it works with cross-dressers now.

[WankingMonkey]

I don't think women can pass the fitness tests that have been designed for men and their physicality.

I think the military tests are just to weed out the fittest of the fit tbh, rather than designed for men. The sites I were reading last night were talking about very valid concerns about women on the frontline..I don't know if this is true or it they were talking about 'what ifs' but the general conversation was about how the fitness tests will be 'altered' for women, thus meaning not as stressful on the body, and in turn meaning some of the hand to hand combat fighters will not be as physically fit as they need to be, and then putting the entire group in danger. It did kind of make sense to me. Of course women (real women, not men in dresses) should be able to do everything men can do, BUT standards cannot be lowered for this to happen..lowering standards in physical jobs puts everyone in danger, if that makes sense.