Where are all the feminists in Russia protesting and demanding that women be treated equally to men and get grabbed on the streets to be forced to fight in Ukraine..?!
If women want true equality with men then they should shoulder the burden of defending their country equally with the men, this means equal conscription and service in the event of a war.
But I think they might come up with a lot of excuses, the old double standard would kick in and suddenly they would again be the "weaker sex".
But I hope I'm wrong, feminism has emboldened women with self confidence and the true test of equality would be equal numbers of men and women on the front line, and of course, equal casualties.
No, look at Afghanistan. The men of that country fought off the foreign invaders over decades and won! Beating the world's superpowers!
What were the women doing? Seen any pictures of Afghan women with AK47 in hand? No, me neither. Some may say females in Afghanistan are not able to fight. They do not have societal permission. This is nonsense. I am sure no one gave the Taliban permission to rebel against the previous government in Kabul. Did that regime have success in telling the men not to do it? How can you stop someone with a gun in their hand doing what they want to do? Why are women unwilling to risk their lives to earn their political power?
Yet now the war is over they are demanding equal access to the political power the men fought for, at least their supporters in the West are. Will we see Western Femunists or Afghan women on the battle ground against the new regime? I will not hold my breath. I wonder why women in that country have no political power - they are unwilling to pay the price of getting it!
Good points , I don't know much about Afghanistan but it looks like a traditional society where women were protected from dangerous activities, meaning it was up to men and young men to risk life and limb to maintain a nation.
This seems to work , they have beaten the Russians and the USA . Feminists are outraged at the oppression of women in Afghanistan but the men don't do too well either, forced to fight and die.
But it could be said that a nation stays strong when men and women have clearly defined roles and individuals see it as a duty to do the best for their nation.
Maybe countries like Afghanistan see things this way , women stay home and raise the next generation without which no nation can survive.
It would annoy the feminists to say that women should stay home and raise a family in their young years but there is a good case for it and western countries have ignored this, to their peril.
The Australian defence forces are being used for propaganda , the White Ribbon was a feminist campaign designed to humiliate men . Why did not the Aussie Air Force push back and refuse to do this? instead they are now seen as weak " virtue signalers" just like most male politicians, too scared to offend the " women" .
here here! I agree on all points Bettina. The more I read your articles, the more I realise what a wonderful gift you are to humanity and to clear reasonable thinking generally. Akin to Jordan Peterson
I wonder how many men have woken up to this, even in Russia, and would now do everything to save their own skin first, with no fear of "white ribbons" or the law, apart from seeing it as something to be dodged in any way?
And what a disgrace that those who want to avoid the draft in Russia are not seen as genuine refugees, just so soon after we portrayed the "oppression" of women in Afghanistan as deserving of international aid, intervention and sanctions? (I quoted "oppression", because the media only portrayed one side of the story, without looking at what the Taliban was imposing on males).
Bettina, this is not about Ukraine. I apologise. However, I wonder if the association that occurred between Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame had any influence on the path Higgins has chosen to tread, There seems to be a common thread that could alleviate any responsibility Higgins might have had in the alleged incident; much the same as Tame. Very little publicity of the court's finding in that matter.
Thanks again Bettina for raising another important issue in these troubling times. Personally, I see no reason why women shouldn't also be blasted to smithereens in jack-in-the-box tanks. The problem is when lives are at stake you need to give yourself not just the best chance of winning but the best chance of survival. Despite some ridiculous commentary to the contrary, women do not have a good record in recent times when it comes down to their effectiveness in combat situations. Colonel Qadaffi made the fatal mistake of relying on an all-female unit for his personal protection. He was dragged out of a drainpipe and executed with his personal protectors nowhere to be seen. The problem with the use of women as "cannon-fodder" is our adversaries are less likely to be deterred by an ideologically-based military that is more concerned with personal pronouns and sex-based quotas than performing its basic mission - defending the nation.
Just to rub a little salt into the wounds of dying men, the UN have been running ads that basically infer that the women fleeing the Ukraine with their children have, for all intents and purposes, been deserted by the men in their lives. Absolutely no attempt to create context, whatsoever.
The saddest reality of all, for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, is that NATO have all but usurped the Ukrainian military, turning the battle into a proxy US/Russian war.
Every conflict since the end of the Second World War seems to have a way of morphing into a geopolitical power game that voids regional nationalistic and ideological military objectives, turning soldiers’ lives from both sides into meaningless pawns in what so often devolves into a deadly, yet completely pointless, and often intractable war.
The Ukraine/Russian conflict is quickly turning into yet another.
>> Just to rub a little salt into the wounds of dying men, the UN have been running ads that basically infer that the women fleeing the Ukraine with their children have, for all intents and purposes, been deserted by the men in their lives.
When you mentioned the UN, I was expecting to see them treating the fleeing women and children as "victims" OF WAR especially deserving of attention and $$$, but I didn't realise it was so bad that they are picturing them as victims of male desertion! Even as their men are being compelled to stay and fight - whether they want to or not!
I asked one lawyer who's something of a Supreme Court expert about the Court's dodge of the all-male conscription requirement in the U.S. She said she'd never seen anything like it, a transparent unwillingness to impose on women the obligations of men. That's the same Court of course that was willing to brave the firestorm of overturning Roe, but stooped to astonishing depths to avoid the issue of registering for the draft.
Staggering. The crimes against the most male victims makes for gruelling reading, but the media's predilection to only mention the comparatively scant number of women and children as victims needs to be called out. I commend the authors of the article you post, and you also, for calling it out.
That's an excellent article, Greg. Thanks for sending that. I include the abstract below and encourage others to read it.
Kosovo war of 1999 offered an excellent opportunity to analyze the representation of gender and violent victimization in the mass media. The present article focuses on the motif of "gendercide," or gender-selective mass killing -- in this case, of "battle-age" ethnic-Albanian men. A broad sample of media commentary is presented to demonstrate that "unworthy" male victims tend to be marginalized or ignored entirely in mass-media coverage. A trio of common marginalization strategies is discussed, and a theoretical framework of "first-order," "second-order," and "third-order" gendering is proposed to clarify the deficit in coverage. This deficit is then contrasted with the attention given to the victimization experiences of "worthy" victims, such as women, children, and the elderly. Finally, the small handful of responsible and insightful media reports on gender-selective atrocities against Kosovar men is evaluated for the alternative it may offer to "effacing the male" from coverage of war and violence.
Huzzah Bettina, l think that you and l know that the table is tilted against men and conscription is just another example of the wider problem. Men generally will not pick up guns to fight for themselves but will for their country, family, wives & daughters which makes them fair game for the general and specific hypocrisy you are highlighting. The death of Russian conscripts is as appalling as any meaningless death for a tyrant of any stripe. The pictures of a few attractive Ukrainian women in uniform is to encourage their men to fight for the valiant women, not to show the equality of the sexes in Ukraine and the global feminist community condemn themselves with their silence on the single sex conscription, and the rush to safety of Women & Children first in this equal world where men die first.
Do a google image search for "female soldier Ukraine" and you will see plenty of young women posing gun in hand.
Now change the search term to "female soldier Ukraine combat footage" and the number of females in the images plummets and the number of men sky rockets!
Reduced to the simplest explanation: 1. No-one actually believes that (most) women can or should do what men (in general) do best, and certainly do not think that women should be engaged in really difficult and dangerous jobs that put their primary social function as potential mothers in jeopardy. People only believe, at most, in the comfortable limits of feminism. 2. In general, women make useless soldiers (as the Israelis have found out). The Russians used to have some front-line female troops (many of whom were super-aggressive) but no longer.
No, we have seen societal norms overturned time after time in the last century, when it favoured women. We now need to insist that women take their rightful responsibilities too - regardless of the impact on the individual woman.
Our society accepts what individuals accept. If the individuals change, so will the society.
Nice idea, but in the end it is not realistic. The only argument in support of your contention is simply that, when threatened in this way, women will back-track, just as the terrorist suffragettes did, for the same reason, at the beginning of the last century.
I know a few cases of people fleeing Russia for that particular reason – not to get drafted into the slaughterhouse. Some of them are fleeing with families, leaving all the belongings behind.
Yet when I wrote about this situation to Refugee Council of Australia, I received a letter informing me that it is up to UN High Commission to determine their status.
Then I wrote to Russian Ethnic Council of Victoria and received no answer whatsoever. Apparently, our Russian community in Victoria, organised around Orthodox Church had spent the last decade building profitable relations with Russia, with celebrations of patriotic events, so as of today the refugees from the draft are but an embarrassment.
Thank you for being an exceptional voice of reason and compassion in a middle of this madness.
It is the invisibility of male oppression and abuse on such a massive and heartbreaking scale which demonstrates the utter contempt western society holds for males. It defies belief yet it is happening. How do feminists sleep at night? But we should be up in arms about the oppression of the poor women in Iran! This endless screaming about female oppression in the Middle East has some credibility but what is ignored is the fact that men and boys suffer horrendous human rights abuses in Iran and other Islamic countries too but yet again we only give a fuck about females.
Men are imprisoned, tortured and executed at a far higher rate in these countries but that is not seen as a sign of oppression, it's just what happens to men the world over.
To be fair the Ukrainian government prevented men from leaving with the women and children refugees. They were handed guns and told to defend Ukraine. That was conscription. If I am not mistaken Putin has called up reserves ie. those that have already volunteered and received military training.
I have read articles and seen interviews with conscripted men who had no military training and were certainly not volunteers. But that could be all propaganda, I admit.
One of the more annoying feminist misrepresentations (and one is spoilt for choice) is the claim that war is the result of men's innate violence - all men. That 99 percent of men in all wars throughout history did not want to be there, but were forced, is ignored.
Yes the clue is in "conscription" or before the levee en masse and before that the feudal obligations of the knight's tenants etc. One could also add the "press gangs" for navies. And consider just why is it generally we are keen to call up, recruit, young men and usually those from poor backgrounds. I suppose in general the "grunts" are ignored because they left no records of their views and experiences. Until perhaps WW1. One of the products of the obsession with "women's history" is a parade of aristocratic and royal women who were equally as likely to engage in plots and assassinations ant to let slip the dogs of war.
Where are all the feminists in Russia protesting and demanding that women be treated equally to men and get grabbed on the streets to be forced to fight in Ukraine..?!
If women want true equality with men then they should shoulder the burden of defending their country equally with the men, this means equal conscription and service in the event of a war.
But I think they might come up with a lot of excuses, the old double standard would kick in and suddenly they would again be the "weaker sex".
But I hope I'm wrong, feminism has emboldened women with self confidence and the true test of equality would be equal numbers of men and women on the front line, and of course, equal casualties.
No, look at Afghanistan. The men of that country fought off the foreign invaders over decades and won! Beating the world's superpowers!
What were the women doing? Seen any pictures of Afghan women with AK47 in hand? No, me neither. Some may say females in Afghanistan are not able to fight. They do not have societal permission. This is nonsense. I am sure no one gave the Taliban permission to rebel against the previous government in Kabul. Did that regime have success in telling the men not to do it? How can you stop someone with a gun in their hand doing what they want to do? Why are women unwilling to risk their lives to earn their political power?
Yet now the war is over they are demanding equal access to the political power the men fought for, at least their supporters in the West are. Will we see Western Femunists or Afghan women on the battle ground against the new regime? I will not hold my breath. I wonder why women in that country have no political power - they are unwilling to pay the price of getting it!
Good points , I don't know much about Afghanistan but it looks like a traditional society where women were protected from dangerous activities, meaning it was up to men and young men to risk life and limb to maintain a nation.
This seems to work , they have beaten the Russians and the USA . Feminists are outraged at the oppression of women in Afghanistan but the men don't do too well either, forced to fight and die.
But it could be said that a nation stays strong when men and women have clearly defined roles and individuals see it as a duty to do the best for their nation.
Maybe countries like Afghanistan see things this way , women stay home and raise the next generation without which no nation can survive.
It would annoy the feminists to say that women should stay home and raise a family in their young years but there is a good case for it and western countries have ignored this, to their peril.
"Feminists are outraged at the oppression of women in Afghanistan but the men don't do too well either, forced to fight and die."
Afghani boys didn't do too well under western control either...
https://www.smh.com.au/world/we-can-hear-them-screaming-soldiers-told-to-ignore-paedophilia-by-afghan-allies-20150921-gjr283.html
While western military was aiding the trafficking and rape of little boys the Australian air force was parading the white ribbon around Afghanistan..
The Australian defence forces are being used for propaganda , the White Ribbon was a feminist campaign designed to humiliate men . Why did not the Aussie Air Force push back and refuse to do this? instead they are now seen as weak " virtue signalers" just like most male politicians, too scared to offend the " women" .
here here! I agree on all points Bettina. The more I read your articles, the more I realise what a wonderful gift you are to humanity and to clear reasonable thinking generally. Akin to Jordan Peterson
I've started a petition. Slim chance it would go anywhere, but anyway, that's all I could do -
https://www.change.org/start-a-petition?source_location=header&started_flow=true&met=mf
PROBABLY SPAM!!
I wonder how many men have woken up to this, even in Russia, and would now do everything to save their own skin first, with no fear of "white ribbons" or the law, apart from seeing it as something to be dodged in any way?
And what a disgrace that those who want to avoid the draft in Russia are not seen as genuine refugees, just so soon after we portrayed the "oppression" of women in Afghanistan as deserving of international aid, intervention and sanctions? (I quoted "oppression", because the media only portrayed one side of the story, without looking at what the Taliban was imposing on males).
Bettina, this is not about Ukraine. I apologise. However, I wonder if the association that occurred between Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame had any influence on the path Higgins has chosen to tread, There seems to be a common thread that could alleviate any responsibility Higgins might have had in the alleged incident; much the same as Tame. Very little publicity of the court's finding in that matter.
Thanks again Bettina for raising another important issue in these troubling times. Personally, I see no reason why women shouldn't also be blasted to smithereens in jack-in-the-box tanks. The problem is when lives are at stake you need to give yourself not just the best chance of winning but the best chance of survival. Despite some ridiculous commentary to the contrary, women do not have a good record in recent times when it comes down to their effectiveness in combat situations. Colonel Qadaffi made the fatal mistake of relying on an all-female unit for his personal protection. He was dragged out of a drainpipe and executed with his personal protectors nowhere to be seen. The problem with the use of women as "cannon-fodder" is our adversaries are less likely to be deterred by an ideologically-based military that is more concerned with personal pronouns and sex-based quotas than performing its basic mission - defending the nation.
Just to rub a little salt into the wounds of dying men, the UN have been running ads that basically infer that the women fleeing the Ukraine with their children have, for all intents and purposes, been deserted by the men in their lives. Absolutely no attempt to create context, whatsoever.
The saddest reality of all, for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, is that NATO have all but usurped the Ukrainian military, turning the battle into a proxy US/Russian war.
Every conflict since the end of the Second World War seems to have a way of morphing into a geopolitical power game that voids regional nationalistic and ideological military objectives, turning soldiers’ lives from both sides into meaningless pawns in what so often devolves into a deadly, yet completely pointless, and often intractable war.
The Ukraine/Russian conflict is quickly turning into yet another.
>> Just to rub a little salt into the wounds of dying men, the UN have been running ads that basically infer that the women fleeing the Ukraine with their children have, for all intents and purposes, been deserted by the men in their lives.
When you mentioned the UN, I was expecting to see them treating the fleeing women and children as "victims" OF WAR especially deserving of attention and $$$, but I didn't realise it was so bad that they are picturing them as victims of male desertion! Even as their men are being compelled to stay and fight - whether they want to or not!
You are quite right, Stephen.
The UN never miss an opportunity to extract money from emotionality vulnerable TV viewers, and this ad was no exception.
I asked one lawyer who's something of a Supreme Court expert about the Court's dodge of the all-male conscription requirement in the U.S. She said she'd never seen anything like it, a transparent unwillingness to impose on women the obligations of men. That's the same Court of course that was willing to brave the firestorm of overturning Roe, but stooped to astonishing depths to avoid the issue of registering for the draft.
Relevant...
http://adamjones.freeservers.com/effacing.htm
Staggering. The crimes against the most male victims makes for gruelling reading, but the media's predilection to only mention the comparatively scant number of women and children as victims needs to be called out. I commend the authors of the article you post, and you also, for calling it out.
That's an excellent article, Greg. Thanks for sending that. I include the abstract below and encourage others to read it.
Kosovo war of 1999 offered an excellent opportunity to analyze the representation of gender and violent victimization in the mass media. The present article focuses on the motif of "gendercide," or gender-selective mass killing -- in this case, of "battle-age" ethnic-Albanian men. A broad sample of media commentary is presented to demonstrate that "unworthy" male victims tend to be marginalized or ignored entirely in mass-media coverage. A trio of common marginalization strategies is discussed, and a theoretical framework of "first-order," "second-order," and "third-order" gendering is proposed to clarify the deficit in coverage. This deficit is then contrasted with the attention given to the victimization experiences of "worthy" victims, such as women, children, and the elderly. Finally, the small handful of responsible and insightful media reports on gender-selective atrocities against Kosovar men is evaluated for the alternative it may offer to "effacing the male" from coverage of war and violence.
Huzzah Bettina, l think that you and l know that the table is tilted against men and conscription is just another example of the wider problem. Men generally will not pick up guns to fight for themselves but will for their country, family, wives & daughters which makes them fair game for the general and specific hypocrisy you are highlighting. The death of Russian conscripts is as appalling as any meaningless death for a tyrant of any stripe. The pictures of a few attractive Ukrainian women in uniform is to encourage their men to fight for the valiant women, not to show the equality of the sexes in Ukraine and the global feminist community condemn themselves with their silence on the single sex conscription, and the rush to safety of Women & Children first in this equal world where men die first.
Do a google image search for "female soldier Ukraine" and you will see plenty of young women posing gun in hand.
Now change the search term to "female soldier Ukraine combat footage" and the number of females in the images plummets and the number of men sky rockets!
How odd!
Reduced to the simplest explanation: 1. No-one actually believes that (most) women can or should do what men (in general) do best, and certainly do not think that women should be engaged in really difficult and dangerous jobs that put their primary social function as potential mothers in jeopardy. People only believe, at most, in the comfortable limits of feminism. 2. In general, women make useless soldiers (as the Israelis have found out). The Russians used to have some front-line female troops (many of whom were super-aggressive) but no longer.
No, we have seen societal norms overturned time after time in the last century, when it favoured women. We now need to insist that women take their rightful responsibilities too - regardless of the impact on the individual woman.
Our society accepts what individuals accept. If the individuals change, so will the society.
Men need to insist on real equality for women!
Nice idea, but in the end it is not realistic. The only argument in support of your contention is simply that, when threatened in this way, women will back-track, just as the terrorist suffragettes did, for the same reason, at the beginning of the last century.
Betttina, thank you!
I know a few cases of people fleeing Russia for that particular reason – not to get drafted into the slaughterhouse. Some of them are fleeing with families, leaving all the belongings behind.
Yet when I wrote about this situation to Refugee Council of Australia, I received a letter informing me that it is up to UN High Commission to determine their status.
Then I wrote to Russian Ethnic Council of Victoria and received no answer whatsoever. Apparently, our Russian community in Victoria, organised around Orthodox Church had spent the last decade building profitable relations with Russia, with celebrations of patriotic events, so as of today the refugees from the draft are but an embarrassment.
Thank you for being an exceptional voice of reason and compassion in a middle of this madness.
Regards
Igor Rogov
Igor, thanks for your comment. You know a lot more about your home country than many of the people reading this, I am sure.
I thought readers might enjoy watching the video we made together many years ago. Here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUktWq7fFY8&t=11s
It is the invisibility of male oppression and abuse on such a massive and heartbreaking scale which demonstrates the utter contempt western society holds for males. It defies belief yet it is happening. How do feminists sleep at night? But we should be up in arms about the oppression of the poor women in Iran! This endless screaming about female oppression in the Middle East has some credibility but what is ignored is the fact that men and boys suffer horrendous human rights abuses in Iran and other Islamic countries too but yet again we only give a fuck about females.
Men are imprisoned, tortured and executed at a far higher rate in these countries but that is not seen as a sign of oppression, it's just what happens to men the world over.
To be fair the Ukrainian government prevented men from leaving with the women and children refugees. They were handed guns and told to defend Ukraine. That was conscription. If I am not mistaken Putin has called up reserves ie. those that have already volunteered and received military training.
I wrote previously about the Ukrainian govenment stopping men leaving. https://bettinaarndt.substack.com/p/ukraines-courageous-women-and-disposable
I have read articles and seen interviews with conscripted men who had no military training and were certainly not volunteers. But that could be all propaganda, I admit.
One of the more annoying feminist misrepresentations (and one is spoilt for choice) is the claim that war is the result of men's innate violence - all men. That 99 percent of men in all wars throughout history did not want to be there, but were forced, is ignored.
Yes the clue is in "conscription" or before the levee en masse and before that the feudal obligations of the knight's tenants etc. One could also add the "press gangs" for navies. And consider just why is it generally we are keen to call up, recruit, young men and usually those from poor backgrounds. I suppose in general the "grunts" are ignored because they left no records of their views and experiences. Until perhaps WW1. One of the products of the obsession with "women's history" is a parade of aristocratic and royal women who were equally as likely to engage in plots and assassinations ant to let slip the dogs of war.