dailyO
Humour

#TheDailyToast: Our women in the Air Force

Advertisement
Gayatri Jayaraman
Gayatri JayaramanOct 09, 2015 | 11:18

#TheDailyToast: Our women in the Air Force

It is such a relief that women will now be able to fly Air Force jets, because now that we've spent decades fighting for this on the ground, we can get on to the second part of this argument. Which of course is, is this a win or a loss for feminism and do we really want this?

Now you might think we may have wanted to decide that before we launched the offensive, but that is not how women think, and if men want a peaceful fighting force you need to understand that the fighting henceforth happens on our terms. Any objections? I'd like to remind you that we have weapons fitted with live fuel and bombs now...

Advertisement

One may argue that the warrior woman is at best a male fantasy...

Remember her?

... Laser gun shooting Princess Leia, in Star Wars, didn't go down without a fight either and remains enthroned in both feminist trope and male fantasy, her bikini costume selling for $120,000 just this month. And we're pretty certain it wasn't a woman who bought it. Never mind that we still can't decide whether the bikini itself is an instrument of liberation or subjugation, resolving that really depends on which beach you are standing on...

1_100915095000.png
Cartoon by: Malcolm Evans.

The question of women as physical equals is one for the dark ages. That's a given. From Sania Mirza to Saina Nehwal, the women are dominating sports headlines everywhere. As Shah Rukh Khan gracefully put it... Our women are trailblazing...

The question, universally, is a moral one... Of war as a moral patriarchal right to subjugate. The Big Daddy State and its opportunistic interventions. Which is basically saying, hey you big male bully, I don't not only disapprove of you, but I'm going to be you, to prove it. And also the belief that women must become more like men, adopting stereotypical virtues of protection, in order to be seen as equal. It also assumes that the war front is the only front (that counts) on which we fight our battles.

Advertisement

Or, to invert the argument... There are men who shouldn't be asking the instructor "what happens when I push this down"? Look, everyone in India is a Sachin fan, when it's a bat he's holding, but he's not the brightest spark in the toolbox, and I still don't know what the hell he is doing in a fighter pilot costume beyond play dress-up and book a clout-ridden reservation for son Arjun. And in the name of equality, I certainly would not trust a Rahul Gandhi flying one of those bombs. What if he thought the missile hatch lever was a bottle opener or something? Entire nations would be destroyed in a non-verbal oopsie. Let's just give him the mic and keep him talking till he stands down. Less damage all around and landslide mandates for whosoever is in opposition. And while I am so glad that Sonia Gandhi adores our Air Force enough to make use of it as a personal taxi service. I just hope for the sake of the eager women lining up to enlist, that's not the duty they're going to be assigned to in the name of equality (Yes, I have trust issues with the Daddy State. You gotta problem with that, see me in the parking bay).

Advertisement
Last updated: October 09, 2015 | 11:18
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy