By Janet Bloomfield (aka JudgyBitch):On May 11th, 2015, 74 000 Lithuanians
between the ages of 19 and 26 were informed that their bodies would be
deployed to serve the good of the nation. The women were ordered to
discontinue all birth control and prepare to give birth to new citizens
to replace the ones that would be lost. The men were ordered to prepare
themselves to be lost. Finland
followed suit, ordering 1.8 million of their 5.5 million population to
prepare themselves for national, mandatory service either as cannon
fodder or new citizen incubators. The Ukraine
intends to draw 200 000 citizens from 25 to 60 years of age. Sweden,
Denmark and Norway are expected to make similar announcements in the
days to come. The Nordic countries consistently rank at the very top
of scales that measure gender equality, and their fair-minded approach
to patriotic duty in the face of military threat is one of the reasons.
These countries understand that equality is not just a word, it’s
something you do. Their enlightened approach
to gender equality extends into every aspect of their lives, including
the obligation to face physical hardship, psychological stress,
disability, pain and even death. In a moving series of portraits, Beata Tiskevic-Hasanova and Neringa
Rekasiute, captured the reaction of conscripted men and women to the
announcement that they would be randomly selected to put their bodies
and lives on the line for their country. Here are five of those men (the rest can be seen here):
The men shed tears for themselves, for their lost opportunities,
their lost ability to determine for themselves the course of their
lives, but they understand that they must make
sacrifices to ensure the survival of their society and way of life.
Those sacrifices are made easier with the knowledge that their sisters
will face a different, no less emotionally harrowing ordeal of their
own. They will be used to breed new citizens to replace the citizens
Lithuania will inevitably lose if war comes to pass. Some of those women
will die carrying out their patriotic duty, although not in any numbers
even approaching the rates the men will die. In 2008, the maternal mortality
rate for Lithuanian women was 16 deaths for every 100 000 births. The
sacrifices of the women will be less, but there is comfort in knowing
that the burden will fall, at least in part, fairly on both women and
men. Here are the women reacting to the news they face birth conscription.
File not found? That’s because it doesn’t exist. The burden will not
fall in any way, shape, or form, on the young women of Lithuania, the
Ukraine, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark or any other country in the
West. It turns out that equality, for these women, is not something you do. It’s just a word. Those men from Lithuania, confronting their own deaths, were called
“cowards”, “unmanly” and “disgraceful”, for wondering why the burden is
theirs, and theirs alone. In Finland, the bubbly Ombudsman for
Minorities Eva Biaudet sees nothing wrong with only men facing obligations to the nation.
Translation (from Finnish original): Question for Eva:
I’ll be joining military service in next January. As
you’re known as an advocate of equality, I’d like to ask you how the
principle of equality is actualized in the fact that compulsory military
service is required only from men, and not also women?”
Answer from Eva:
“Tough Question!” “Yes, nowadays also women have the opportunity to participate in
military service, and I know there has been discussion that it has
however been made fairly difficult for them. For example, the medical
pre-examination requires a fee, when with boys it’s part of the
package.” “But yes, looks like the situation is that there isn’t that much
interest among girls. So I think our system is pretty good, when, after
all, only half of the conscription-age people go through military
service.” “So I think there’s no need to change the situation.”
There isn’t much interest among girls in staggering under the weight
of their dying friends on blood-soaked battlefields? You don’t say. How
much interest do you imagine boys have in doing this? David Garrett,
writing at Return of Kings,
suggests that women could be conscripted to provide care to the
elderly, but what risk is present in that scenario? What sacrifice of
body and mind is required? Many might argue that women should be conscripted in exactly
the same way that men are conscripted, but there are good arguments
that such a literal approach would end up costing more men’s lives. Men
would find it hard to overcome their instincts to protect women. Many women are simply not physically able
to protect men, or physically carry them out of danger, meaning those
men would die. All-women units might be a solution, but I like my
solution better, quite frankly, because of how profoundly it changes the
conversation about reproductive rights and gender. The Birth Draft. Conscript men to the army, and for every man entered into the draft
and deployed, a woman will be drafted to give birth. If his body is
disposable, a commodity the state can use to carry out national security
for the good of all surviving citizens, then so is hers.
Men are stronger, faster and bigger – the physical requirements a
ground force needs. Women are able to give birth to new citizens, the
physical requirements a nation needs to continue to exist. There is no need for women to actually parent the children they give
birth to, if they do not wish to do so. Families older than the draft
age can adopt the infants and do their part, too. If men who have served
their time face a second round of conscription, then women who have
been drafted for birth will also face another draft round. Logistically, I don’t see a problem with this. If we have the
mechanism to sort through the entire citizenry to select men to die, and
we do, that same mechanism can be used to select eligible women to face
a birth draft. How to select the fathers? Now that is an interesting
conversation! Do fathers have custody rights? Sure! Why not? Let’s be as
bubbly as Miss Eva! Let’s make this the new face of patriotism.
The Nordic countries consistently rank at the very top
of scales that measure gender equality, and their fair-minded approach
to patriotic duty in the face of military threat is one of the reasons.
These countries understand that equality is not just a word, it’s
something you do. Their enlightened approach
to gender equality extends into every aspect of their lives, including
the obligation to face physical hardship, psychological stress,
disability, pain and even death.
File not found? That’s because it doesn’t exist. The burden will not
fall in any way, shape, or form, on the young women of Lithuania, the
Ukraine, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark or any other country in the
West. It turns out that equality, for these women, is not something you do.
Translation (from Finnish original):
The Nordic countries consistently rank at the very top
of scales that measure gender equality, and their fair-minded approach
to patriotic duty in the face of military threat is one of the reasons.
These countries understand that equality is not just a word, it’s
something you do. Their enlightened approach
to gender equality extends into every aspect of their lives, including
the obligation to face physical hardship, psychological stress,
disability, pain and even death.
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