I certainly agree with your major points. In particular, our society needs to get over the idea that "our side" needs to suppress or distort true facts, because we are afraid that the other side will misuse such facts. That direction lies tyranny. Like the way that governments allowed *without accountability* to freely censor things fo…
I certainly agree with your major points. In particular, our society needs to get over the idea that "our side" needs to suppress or distort true facts, because we are afraid that the other side will misuse such facts. That direction lies tyranny. Like the way that governments allowed *without accountability* to freely censor things for national security, will gravitate into abusing that power to censor embarrassments or challenges to the ruling party. We need to challenge the misinterpretations or false implications, not suppress any "inconvenient truths".
(This also fit's with Steve's questions of "is pretending that trans women are the same as biological women really the only way to support treating trans folks humanely?")
Small dissents.
Today, I would question whether human being (without editing their genomes) are ever likely to en masse avoid arousal from exposure to nakedness. Note how widespread coverage of the loins is cross culturally around the world. I think that may indicate an innate propensity which can only partially and inconsistently be overridden by culture. (For selective groups, it can certainly happen. I'm quite familiar with naturism etc. But what works for a selective subset like that may not work for the broad unselected society; and the military - composed largely of young folks - is going to be closer to the broader society than to naturists. Or perhaps worse.).
I would agree that it would be possible to culturally get past the "male soldiers losing focus due to protecting female soldiers" thing. After all, many cultures without chivalry concepts are willing to sacrifice women more easily than men, so that's obviously easily affected by culture. There are other reasons that women may relatively rarely make good combat soldiers; the major physical differences can be very relevant. How many woman can carry an average or above average weight wounded man over their shoulders? A few, not most. Reports are that standards are often watered down to allow women to pass. That works, in peacetime. (Of course, guiding a drone or repairing a helicopter or flying a plane is quite another matter).
There are some far more practical reasons to gird one's loins no matter where you live: Flies and other annoying critters that find the scent of one's butthole positively heavenly, LOL! We don't have bushy tails to chase them away like horses. In addition, women have a second orifice bugs might find terribly attractive.
We may think it's about keeping men's basest instincts (LOL) in check and I can't swear it isn't, but if I lived in the jungle with a bunch of women I'd still wear a skirt. If I had memory of modern life I'd wear a bra too, because I've always found braless uncomfortable.
When men see nudity all day long it stops being sexualized. Boy oh boy was my long hair sexualized when I was in Turkey; I was followed around by men all day long trying to get into my pants, as was my blonde friend with whom I was traveling. Chinese men sexualized women's feet at one point and Victorian men famously sexualized ankles and legs. And in those jungle/savannah societies, the men clearly don't go around in a state of arousal all day long at the sight of all those naked boobs.
I certainly agree with your major points. In particular, our society needs to get over the idea that "our side" needs to suppress or distort true facts, because we are afraid that the other side will misuse such facts. That direction lies tyranny. Like the way that governments allowed *without accountability* to freely censor things for national security, will gravitate into abusing that power to censor embarrassments or challenges to the ruling party. We need to challenge the misinterpretations or false implications, not suppress any "inconvenient truths".
(This also fit's with Steve's questions of "is pretending that trans women are the same as biological women really the only way to support treating trans folks humanely?")
Small dissents.
Today, I would question whether human being (without editing their genomes) are ever likely to en masse avoid arousal from exposure to nakedness. Note how widespread coverage of the loins is cross culturally around the world. I think that may indicate an innate propensity which can only partially and inconsistently be overridden by culture. (For selective groups, it can certainly happen. I'm quite familiar with naturism etc. But what works for a selective subset like that may not work for the broad unselected society; and the military - composed largely of young folks - is going to be closer to the broader society than to naturists. Or perhaps worse.).
I would agree that it would be possible to culturally get past the "male soldiers losing focus due to protecting female soldiers" thing. After all, many cultures without chivalry concepts are willing to sacrifice women more easily than men, so that's obviously easily affected by culture. There are other reasons that women may relatively rarely make good combat soldiers; the major physical differences can be very relevant. How many woman can carry an average or above average weight wounded man over their shoulders? A few, not most. Reports are that standards are often watered down to allow women to pass. That works, in peacetime. (Of course, guiding a drone or repairing a helicopter or flying a plane is quite another matter).
There are some far more practical reasons to gird one's loins no matter where you live: Flies and other annoying critters that find the scent of one's butthole positively heavenly, LOL! We don't have bushy tails to chase them away like horses. In addition, women have a second orifice bugs might find terribly attractive.
We may think it's about keeping men's basest instincts (LOL) in check and I can't swear it isn't, but if I lived in the jungle with a bunch of women I'd still wear a skirt. If I had memory of modern life I'd wear a bra too, because I've always found braless uncomfortable.
When men see nudity all day long it stops being sexualized. Boy oh boy was my long hair sexualized when I was in Turkey; I was followed around by men all day long trying to get into my pants, as was my blonde friend with whom I was traveling. Chinese men sexualized women's feet at one point and Victorian men famously sexualized ankles and legs. And in those jungle/savannah societies, the men clearly don't go around in a state of arousal all day long at the sight of all those naked boobs.
Male arousal by breasts is a fairly recent phenomenon.
Covering the genitalia probably has more to do with their vulnerability than the potential for arousal leading to rape.