Jenny’s Pennies

Today, the outgoing head of the National Service Administration (Pliktverket), Mr Björn Körlof, has proposed making military conscription gender-neutral in Sweden. (You can read an explanation in English of how the conscription assessment process works here).

A very good idea according to me - if we are to keep the conscription system (which is in no way mandatory nowadays, due to budget cuts and downsizing of the armed forces) we should of course have an equal system with the right man or woman in the right place.

Many commenters that I have read today seem to agree with Mr. Körlof.
The anti-feminist side have long played the “well, conscription is only mandatory for boys and you are not complaining about that“-card when women in Sweden talk about societal gender inequality, and they seem mostly happy with the idea. Sweden’s most well know MRA Per Ström thinks that it is a great idea, although somehow (but not surprisingly) he comes to the conclusion that it is the feminists’ fault that we haven’t got a gender neutral conscription law yet.

Well, my experience is that it has mostly been men and conservatives, not feminists and progressives, who have been against women in the military, with the arguments that it will effeminate the military, it will distract the male soldiers, women can’t carry as much as men, they haven’t got the mental capacity to act cold blooded as they are too emotional and can’t use logic, they are too weak, too short and they have periods and breasts and vaginas and other yucky stuff that boys can’t handle.

Of course, the “debate” (i.e. the newspapers’ comments sections and blog links) has also had its fair share of comments along the lines of “well, next we should say that we only fight gender-neutral enemies with the correct queer theoretical ideas”, an argument so ridiculous that it only deserves ridicule back, but which also show how misogyny and anti-gay feelings are intertwined and demonstrates the fear some people have for anything or anyone not within their preconceived notions of “manhood” and “womanhood”.

And then there are the people - both men and women - who compare military service to pregnancy, saying that women already have their nine month “conscription” and therefore should be exempt from the military one. This argument is so stupid I don’t even know where to begin. But it is also scary, because it contains the idea that while men pay their tribute to the fatherland by enlisting in the military, women do it by having children. Pair that with these ideas, and I’m having a nightmare.

Luckily, it looks like Mr. Körlof’s ideas might become reality soon. The minister of defense (who was a conscientious objector!) has announced that he will start a parliamentary commission on the future of the conscription system, including the question of gender neutrality. Sweden’s supreme commander Håkan Syrén is also for a gender neutral conscription law, and so is many political parties.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Gender equality, Sweden, Swedish politics, War and military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.