The Selective Service: Discrimination and Genocide Against Males
Today I walked into my local Post Office to send a stuffed animal to my newborn niece. On one wall I saw this poster.
I found a brochure with a cover just like the poster and it explained how males who are 18-25 are required to register for the Selective Service System. Inside, under the question “Will I Be Drafted?” the brochure says, “The fact that a man is required to register does not mean that he will be drafted. No one has been drafted since 1973. No one can be drafted into the military unless ordered by the Congress and the President. A draft would most likely occur only in the event of war or national emergency.” [emphasis mine]
We are constantly bombarded with propaganda that we are a free country with equal opportunity and treatment regardless of race, religion, sex blah, blah, blah. You are only free if you have choice. The sexes are only equal if they have equal freedoms and responsibilities.
If you can be ordered to do something that puts your life in danger, you are not free. Why are only men ages 18-25 required to register with the Selective Service System? Why not women? Why are women free from a possible order to fight for freedom when they are obviously the only sex that is free from threat of being forced to fight? Shouldn’t those who are free be the ones who have to defend their freedom?
Forcing ONLY young men to register with the Selective Service System is clear evidence that our society considers males second-class citizens whose lives are less important than female lives. Men can be required to sacrifice their freedom and also their lives by Congress and the President. Women cannot; they are protected.
If males do not register they will pay a price. The Selective Service System web site says that males who fail to register can be fined up to $250,000 and sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison or both. The Soloman Amendment (1982) made registration a requirement for Federal Student Categories of Financial Aid which include: Pell Grants, Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, College Work-Study, National Direct Student Loans, Guaranteed Student/Plus Loans, and Some State Student Incentive Grant Programs. Women can have all these things without the threat of being drafted.
The Thurmond Amendment (1985) requires registration to be eligible for Federal jobs in the Executive Branch. The same is true for most jobs in the Federal Government and the postal service, including temporary and summer jobs. Women can have the jobs without the threat of being drafted.
Eligibility for job training under the Workforce Investment Act is only available to males if they are registered for the Selective Service. Registration is also required of immigrant males seeking US citizenship. Women can get the training without the threat of being drafted.
In addition, many states, local government agencies, police departments and state bar examiners also require registration for males. Women can have these opportunities without the threat of being drafted.
Where is the equal opportunity and equal responsibility in the Selective Service? Only men have to sacrifice their freedom and possibly their lives to have all those government benefits. Women get it all for free.
Is it any surprise that on average women outlive men by 7 years and men commit suicide at four times the rate of women? Is it any surprise that males are enraged? No rational male can reconcile the Selective Service, which should be called Selective Tyranny and Genocide Against Males, with the notion that we live in a free country with equality of the sexes.
My niece was lucky to be born a girl because she is free. Male babies are born into slavery.
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November 30th, 2003 at 12:55 pm
agree with all of the above. but if you want to be a little more enraged, women are being recruited by the selective service system to serve as draft board members. I read that currently 40 percent of the applicants for draft board member vaciencies are female. So now we men will be drafted and the young ladies will decide which one of us gets a deferment or NOT.
How is that for equality.
January 11th, 2004 at 12:20 am
When it comes to the draft, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Please visit http://www.draftresistance.org, a website dedicated to shattering the myths surrounding selective service registration.
May 28th, 2004 at 5:02 pm
Couldn’t agree more. This is just one of many examples of how men are used as tools by women and the government. They view us as a means to an end rather than as full human beings with truly inalienable rights. Women get support and benefits, men responsibilities, expectations and obligations. This situation has been around for a long time, occasionally interrupted by bursts of energy to relieve it (it could be said that the Am. rev’l'nary war is one such example, though this debatable). But without a real commitment to men’s rights as such, and as human beings, we will go on getting shafted and used. It is wayyyy past time for a fully, truly revolutionary change in thinking and perceiving of men to occur.
July 22nd, 2004 at 6:28 am
If there is a war do you guys want women on the front lines deciding whether we win or not? what the hell? when was the last time any of you guys were drafted? if you’re looking for life to be fair then you are going to be miserable whining little boys your whole lives.
July 22nd, 2004 at 11:04 pm
Fighting on the front lines for individual liberty and choice is hard enough without having those who equate obedience with courage shooting us in the back.
October 28th, 2004 at 5:58 pm
What man with any brains would fight to protect a system that is so much against men when the fighting stops? men get screwed over in the criminal courts, family courts, the health system, education, welfare just to name a few that readily come to mind, and when push turns to shove, the women want the men to defend them?
Give me a break! They are not worth defending and neither is the system.
November 3rd, 2004 at 11:12 am
You guys are arguing about the wrong issue. NO ONE should be subject to a draft. I applaude those who join the military on their own, but you are correct that selective service is nothing more that slavery. If you want to be angry and fight about something, fight to END SELECTIVE SERVICE, not to drag women into the mix.
November 3rd, 2004 at 4:01 pm
I agree with you totally, Caroline, and have stated that opinion many times.
Women get dragged into the mix in this discussion because the Selective Service exists in the context of our society’s values. In that context, men are disposable and not as free as women, though feminists tend to only see women as victims of discrimination.
When individual rights are the cornerstone of our society, both men and women will be free. And neither could be forced into military service.
November 18th, 2004 at 7:49 am
An all volunteer army is the only right thing to do. i am in college, and i could’nt even register for classes unless registering for the draft. If the draft could be reinstated, the only thing that could be justified was another world wide threat, WWI and WWII were HONORABLE wars. not Iraq.
My life is just that MY LIFE, not some president who skipped out of his service, and runs on “Moral values” Oil is not worth blood. It sickens me how George Bush and company claimed “WMD’s” were an imminent threat and Iraq must be disarmed. How arrogant, the US and European nations all have nuclear weapons. it is only human for poor countries to want them. Its like” We can have them but you can’t.”
The US is going downhill. If the president wants to talk about morality, he needs to look at his own family, and bring back all the boys overseas. I had a friend in high school who was killed in Falluja for what. George Bush’s vendetta.
November 30th, 2004 at 3:57 pm
either there is a draft and it must be for the women too and they are to be sent to the front line too (the risk to be killed must be equal for both sexes), or it is a volonteer army.
December 1st, 2004 at 11:38 am
The fierceness of the combat that would be fought in the type of war that would bring a draft would be tremendous.
The fact is, men are more fit to handle the rigors of ground troop front line combat. Sexual equality takes a back seat to that. The function of any men that are drafted would be to kill, and to keep on killing until the war is over. Men do this more effectively in the type of war that would put a draft in motion.
Refrain from emotionalism and knee jerk statements of “outrage” over this issue. The wheels of democracy move slowly. As more and more positions in this high tech military open up the issue of including women in a possible draft will be revisited by the legislature as it has every few years.
December 8th, 2004 at 2:50 pm
“The fact is..”. What facts are you talking about, exactly? I, for one, am a skinny male geek who sits in front of a computer all day. I probably couldn’t carry a 20lbs machine gun for 100 yards without collapsing of exhaustion. There is a large gym nearby where I see huge, muscular women with necks bigger than my legs workout every day. I think about the draft everytime I see them.
The idea that men are naturally “more fit to handle the rigors of comabat” is completly false. My sister runs three miles each morning and could survive better in combat than me. How many strong, athletic women will sit at home at watch me die on tv if I’m drafted?
March 15th, 2005 at 11:07 am
I donot agree with any of the ideas any of you present. The draft is a useful tool and women should be drafted. Who wants to volunteer to die for a bunch of people who won’t get off their own tushes to defend themselves? Nobody does. I personlly would fight to protect my family and my friends but I don’t want to volunteer to go fight for all you lazy bums. The fix? The draft; For the most part the draft makes it so everybady has an equal chance to fight. If women are added to the draft all the better. As for the physical ability of people it doesn’t matter because the army will ship you into shape and if your “a skinny male geek who sits in front of the computer all day”, There are plenty of jobs that require no physical abilities at all.
March 15th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Here’s one obvious problem with your position:
You said:
“Who wants to volunteer to die for a bunch of people who won’t get off their own tushes to defend themselves? Nobody does.”
The American soldiers in Iraq are volunteers and over 1,500 of them have died fighting for people who would not defend themselves.
So there are plenty of people willing to fight for those who “won’t defend themselves.”
Like you, most people will fight for the things they love.
And those who love freedom and want their children to be free will fight to keep any government, including our own, from taking it away.
April 5th, 2005 at 11:49 pm
Even our founding fathers believed that a government that declares ownership of its citizens is not worth fighting for. They refused to force service during the War of 1812 because to do so would require abandoning this principle, and the survival of the nation was not worth that. Today, and as far back as the Civil War we have abandoned that principle.
I have some ambivelence on the issue of the draft as what what would be more fair: No draft, drafting women on an equal basis, or an affirmative action draft which would require only women until their number drafted had risen to an equal basis with men.I would like to have a poll on the subject.
I prefer the latter, but where will the women plug in their curling irons, hair dryers, and vibrators on the battrfield. I would be willing to offer my services to solve that problem. I recently wrote a letter to the Center for Military
Readiness (a think tank run by female draft dodgers)and asked them to explain to me how having a penis would protect me when I was in a Humvee that drove across a landmine, I have not received a response. If Mr. Eric Arrington would provide with his address I would be pleased to show him how much of a whining little boy I am. Since women do not register are they then “draft dodgers”? After twenty-five years this subject is finally getting the attention it deserves, now that states are requiring you to register to get a driver’s license, I do not understand the relationship of that. I wish someone would contest those laws in court.
I really do not believe that the people who profit from wars are willing to risk their futures in order to prove a point, by instuting a draft. This nearly happened in the Vietnam War as the protests exploded across the country. This time if women are not involved personally they probably will not be involved in the protests because they will be part of those who profit from wars. Finally, this issue is a burning ember just waiting for enough people to get up in arms, in order for it to flare into an inferno that may consume us all.
April 26th, 2005 at 11:02 am
^^ just to let you know WWI wasnt an honorable war. it was one of the most pointless wars ever. and it led us and is responsible for WWII in which millions died. now tell me it is honorable…
May 16th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Here is thge bottom line as far as I’m concerned. I gave 8 years of my life to the US military. I was discharged honorably. That was in 1985. Men could get jobs. Houses were affordable. Gas was cheap. Reagan had not destroyed the economy of this country with his “tricke down economics”. Women were homemakers for the most part. They knew their place in life. Raise children. THose days are long gone for ever. SInce womwn wanted all rights men have as far as working, wages etc…they will have to fight the next war too. I for one don’t give a crap if they get hurt on the battlefield. Why should men die while they stay at home having sex with the neighbor while their boy friends , husbands are fighting the war. I will never fight any war for this country unless women go too. I would rather leave this country to never return than to fight for this country unless womwn are also required to. It as simple as that. If the US government decides to draft males only the riots they will see will be unreal. THe wommen now must pay for all the crap they did to hurt men. THey want it all and they dont want to give nothing back. Screw that! IF you can be a cop or fireman (sorry fireperson), then you can hold an M-16. If you can’t hold an M-16 than you should shut the hell up and start acting like a woman an raise your kids right. You all want jobs, jobs jobs, equal pa, equal treatment at work. You want to be treated as equals. Now you are screwed. You will have to deal with the result of your actions the last 25 years. This is one male that wont fight for your young ass to stay home and have sex while we are getting killed in combat. I am sure I am in the majority concerning this issue. Millions of males are real angry at women for taking so many jobs from us with their equality garbage. Now is your chance girls. You will be drafted just like us or all hell will break aout all over if the government thinks they dont have to incluse women in any future draft they better go back and think this over real good. Men won’t put up with this crap any more.
May 16th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
Ironically, I heard on the news just this week that a bill is being introduced in Congress to prohibit women from fighting in combat positions or on the front lines.
What does that mean? They will get to be the generals but the men will have to put their lives on the line.
I couldn’t find a link about this law but I know I saw a segment on the news about it. All the military people they interviewed said that women had been fighting in Iraq on the front lines and doing a great job. The consensus was that the military couldn’t function without them, especially since new recruitments are way down.
UPDATE 5/19/05: I found the story.
July 3rd, 2005 at 6:42 am
GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES MILITARY DRAFT
To secure the continuing existence of the United States democracy against intractable religious fanaticism, whose goal is nothing less than a Muslim theocracy for all of Planet Earth, it is inevitable that general military conscription will again be implemented following the 2004 Presidential Election, despite political protestation to the contrary. Indeed, a ‘backdoor’ draft, imposed by the Bush administration, has existed in our military for more than a two years, whereby current personnel are forced to serve past their retirement or end-of-enlistment dates.
With very rare exceptions, every male residing in the United States 18 to 26 years of age is required by the Military Selective Service Act to register with the Selective Service System, and thereby subject himself to the possibility of involuntary military service. Yet, with the ongoing War on Islamic Terrorism, the prosecution of which has required the deployment of hundreds of thousands of U.S. military personnel, and stretched the National Guard and Reserve to its limit, absolutely no female in the U.S. is required to register. This clear fact of gender discrimination has not been focused upon in public discussions because an active draft has not been in effect since 1973.
The United States Selective Service System offers on its Website a short history of the draft with respect to women. The primary reason given for non-registration of women is a Supreme Court decision, Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). Simply stated, it says that since all men registered with the Selective Service are considered combat replacements, and since Congress forbids women to go into combat, women should not be registered. Of course, this reasoning is absurd, since it presupposes that absolutely every male called for involuntary military service will be used exclusively for combat, and conversely that absolutely no male called will be used for the approximately 90% of military jobs which are non-combat related.
Two identical pieces of legislation before the U.S. Congress, H.R.163 and S.89, referred to as Universal National Service Act of 2003, amend the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the registration of females. Unless exempted, they obligate the performance of a two-year period of national service either in the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that “promotes the national defense,” for all United States residents, male and female, between 18 and 26 years of age. Further perusal of this proposal reveals Section 5(d), which authorizes the President “to apply different classification standards for fitness for military service and fitness for civilian service.” This Section clearly permits the President to perpetuate the current double standard and pander to the female voting majority. Because of a Congressional rule exempting females, only males will be placed involuntarily into direct ground combat. Females, although subject to national service, will be spared the dirt and danger that is inherent in facing our country’s enemies. Section 5(d) guarantees that virtually all females will return whole and well to enjoy equal civil rights and equal veteran benefits, while those of their male peers who do return will have had a vastly different experience discharging their ’male-only’ civil responsibilities.
Some questions arise as a result of these blatant facts of continuing gender discrimination:
1. Do equal civil rights for females obligate females to equal civil responsibilities? Should the absence of female civil responsibilities vis-à-vis military service commensurately diminish female civil rights? In light of the fact that only males are required by Federal Law to serve involuntarily in direct ground combat for up to six years of their lives, and to risk their very existence in that service, to what quantum degree should females’ civil rights be diminished? Why is the pretext of a logically flawed Supreme Court decision, and continuing legislative gender discrimination, allowed to exempt the female majority of the population from any possibility of involuntary direct ground combat? .
2. Should female members of the Legislative and Executive branches of government be permitted to vote for war or military conflict, i.e. to place only males into involuntary direct ground combat, while they and their daughters enjoy gender exemption from such civil responsibility?
3. Title IX demands that proportionately gender-equal funding be used for all school-based activities, including athletics, in schools that receive any federal funding. Many schools have had to abandon male team sports that earn revenue in excess of their costs and which aid in the preparation of males for the teamwork and organization of military service that only males must (under Federal Law) perform, in order to provide gender-equal funding for female sports which perennially lose revenue. Yet there is no imperative for females to utilize the skills and strengths learned on the athletic field and in the classroom for the military defense of their country. Should Title IX continue?
4. Arguments, based on strength and speed, against placing females involuntarily into direct ground combat, are here repudiated: Gender-norming has been extensively used to affirmatively place females ahead of males into civilian positions requiring physical strength and speed, such as firefighters, police, smoke jumpers, and cadets in service academies. Historically, males, and only males, have borne the civil responsibility of involuntary direct ground combat. Why not use these same gender-normed standards to affirmatively place females ahead of males into involuntary direct ground combat? Females cannot be simultaneously too weak and slow to perform as equals to males on the battlefield, and still be affirmatively placed ahead of males into civilian occupations that require similar strength and speed.
David W. Behrens
10 High Point Terrace
Sussex, NJ 07461
973-875-9793
dave_behrens@juno.com
November 30th, 2005 at 4:29 pm
I am a woman, but I agree with what you are saying. My boy is almost 18 years old. I am in constant fear that he will be taken from me.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
It seems like a no-brainer to me. If you look at the overall big picture, women aren’t required to sign up in the selective service because:
1) Ovaries: Gotta have em to replace, maintain, or build-up the war machine effort.
2) Costs: VA Hospitals lack beds for females. Would cost quite a bit to have beds available. Worked at the VA, know this from 1st hand experience. Carry that over into a military base operations, etc., and you realize that there would be some major money incentives to keep the status quo.
3) Politics: What would happen to the dynamics of politics if a 18-26 year old women thought for a moment, they might be drafted. Women are the majority aren’t they? Might change a lot of women’s point of view.
4) Wages in Military: How would that impact the private sector? Granted, military families lose substantial assets while serving, but returning into the private sector could realize gains for women.
I have 2 daughters and 1 son. I don’t love my son less. Makes you wonder why this isn’t being promoted more in alternative medias and organizations. Where is NOW, or MoveOn.org on this issue? I don’t blame men for being angry at women over this. At the same time, I don’t understand why women aren’t more angry at this system of discrimination.
Good luck to the cause! There are a few good women behind this!
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:44 pm
It is not my fault I was born a male. It was not my choice. It is extremely unfair to put me in danger just because the dice happened to roll differently with me during my formation. I do not regret being a male. It is partially what makes me who I am. I am a proud father and husband. The anxiety in combat and in a foreign country would be unreal as I thought about my wife and baby girl back home. And I would think about how they would be financially supported if I were to die in combat. I could not do this… All of the knowledge I have accumulated and the things I have learned risked to be lost forever. I did not spend 20+ years of my life learning and furthering myself educationally just to have it stolen from me. And for what? So the existence of McDonalds and Wal-Mart can can continue? Fuck that noise.
I cannot believe we as humans have advanced so much in the past century, yet we’re still so primitive as to engage in widespread destruction and murder. I am ashamed to call myself a human. However, I can see from many of your thoughts and feelings, there are many of us who share the same general concept. Peace is the answer. I don’t care if others view me as weak for wanting to be left alone and wanting others to be left alone. To the war mongers, I say you are primates. Go evolve. Draft and the selective service is _WRONG_.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my homeland. I like the ability to go eat a quad cheeseburger at Burger King once awhile or use my broadband Internet connectivity to my heart’s desire. But, I would not die for this. I will not invade someone else’s homeland and kill their countrymen. Self preservation is one of the most basic of instincts. I would much rather live in the woods without all the luxuries of modern life than to be dead due to someone else’s control over me.
One last personal thought. If my local area was ever affected by invaders who were killing my neighbours, family and friends; In that case I would kill. Because at this point, it has come down to the wire.
This is a very interesting conversation. Keep brainstorming, fellow freethinkers! =)
God bless,
malign
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Selective Service, as it exists, is so obviously unfair that I find it
astounding that we are still discussing it in 2008. For those who feel
that SS is a bad idea in the first place, I say: 1. If we are going to
have it- right or wrong- then it should be as fair as possible, and 2.
The practical issue is that SS is unlikely to result in a draft given
today’s political climate. Adding the other half of the population to
the pool at risk will only increase the number of people with a vested
interest in not using the draft.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Forget about the draft.
What burns me is that males must register, or else. Not to mention all the programs, etc they will not be able to get, etc.
Females just get it for nothing. Like so many other things.
Females are, as of the last Census, 50.9% yet are still called a minority.
Comes down to the simple fact that males will always do whatever to please a female. How did all these laws get passed to begin with?
Females, for whatever reason, haven’t figured this out.
Selective Service is nothing more than another link in the system to give everything to a female, as long as a male does the work.