"No more sexist comments, okay?!"
I have this friend who’s in the year below me who insists that certain sexist institutions within society should be tolerated based on the fact that a couple million years ago there was a biological basis for it. He says that that’s why women shouldn’t be included in the draft and also uses it as a front for some scary homophobia and gender role enforcing (he said that a man shouldn’t be able to wear a dress and be considered straight.) When I pointed out to him, on the dress comment, that it wasn’t a biological reason, as he said, that men started wearing pants, but merely a helpful observation that wearing kilts/tunics didn’t really mix well with riding horses, the kid totally disregarded my comment.
We then launched into a spirited debate over the draft. My argument was that getting a good recruit is a fifty-fifty chance so there’s really no reason for women to be excluded from the draft, especially because war is so much more about technology nowadays. He was waxing on and on about how biologically men are meant to be warriors, so women shouldn’t be. I tried to explain to him that it seemed like he was operating under the assumption that biology is still the sole function of human society, which could have been debated pretty much even thousands of years ago, and that biology should stay stagnant. I tried to explain to him that not pushing the envelope when it comes to “biology” (if you could call it) would leave humans unadapted and therefore unprepared, if one used his theory. He just said, “You’re wrong,” and walked away.
He’s the sort to demand sources; even when I was explaining that bra burning didn’t happen the way most think it did, he wanted me to document sources. I’d have to carry around a twenty pound folder to be able to document even a quarter of the things I know. I was wondering if anybody had any sources or good arguments to use so I could prove him wrong.
