Vox Day, the not-quite-Nazi fantasy author and generally repellant human being, is evidently upset that some people would like trans folks to be allowed to serve openly in the military. In a blog post today (archived here), Vox (Theodore Beale) cites recent gains by ISIS as proof that armies that “tolerate effeminacy” will inevitably lose to, well, armies run by people who hate gay and trans people enough to murder them.
No, really. Here’s his argument, in all of its horrendous, er, glory:
Military history clearly demonstrates that the side that executes homosexuals, whether throwing them off buildings or having their fellow soldiers beat them to death, reliably defeats the side that allows its soldiers to dress up and pretend they are women.
Yes, wealth and technology are on the side of the crossdressing military. But attrition, geography, and history are on the side that does not tolerate effeminacy.
Naturally, Beale’s commenters step up to offer their own equally terrible opinions on the matter.
According to Musashi #0350,
This national validation of all things homo is an affront to God and we will witness the resulting consequences. This is arrogance, pride, and most of all, rebellion. So now we pollute the military and somehow expect there will be no negative outcome.
We will lose our next war, and rightly so.
Alexander adds
Let’s see how long discipline lasts when mentally ill individuals have the power of the state behind them to remove their commanders from their positions, on the basis that said commanders don’t tolerate the private prancing about in heels and stockings.
Or conversely, when the officers insist upon it.
ajw308 is afraid the armed forces could be overwhelmed by the “sexually confused.”
I fear the day is coming where the US gov’t will pay for the mutilatiotional surgery that the sexually confused think will make them happy and the US military is flooded with transgenders seeking pretend surgical reassignment
Cail Corishev, meanwhile, indulges in this rather old-fashioned fantasy:
Just imagine if we (meaning the US govt. military) came up against a Christian army — not just a heathen army that God might use to chastise us, but a Christian army that could ask for His favor directly.
Theodore Beale and his fans: in essence, a Christian version of ISIS.
@WWTH
I live in a country that still has the draft, and will keep on having the draft for the foreseeable future, but we still have cis-het men around, and most of them are white cis-het men. Then again, we haven’t actually been at war since 1944-5, so…swings and roundabouts I guess?
This story just popped up in my tweets at the perfect time for this post.
In a post critical of Caitlin Jenner, a man used a picture of a soldier carrying a comrade to safety. Or so he thought. When he searched to credit the photo, he learned it was from a piece on Marwencol, an imaginary place created by Mark Hogencamp to help him heal from the pain and trauma after being beaten by a gang. He was targeted for being a transvestite.
If you haven’t heard about Marwencol, it is worth checking out. PBS did a documentary about Mark.
http://mic.com/articles/120165/this-man-learned-an-ironic-lesson-after-an-attack-on-caitlyn-jenner-s-bravery-went-viral
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/marwencol/
@katz
Eddie Izzard always delivers.
Shhh… don’t tell him about the Isle of Lesbos, nor the Amazons.
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In the Hagakure it wasn’t entirely encouraged, more just seen as no big deal. It did have the advantage of not creating children who could then distract one from the complete service of one’s lord. The entire attitude about homosexual relations in bushido can be summed up as “Does it interfere with your duties?” “No.” “Then who the fuck cares, go do your job.”
@pendraegon
Yeah, you’re actually quite correct. In the Hagakure it basically just says that if you absolutely have to have a romantic relationship with someone, it’s better to do so with a fellow soldier, since that way you won’t be distracted from your service to your lord. I’m paraphrasing of course, but you get the point. Still, feudal Japan was kinda progressive on this one, incredibly narrow and specific, way. 🙂
@Monzach
It is an interesting bit in the Hagakure, where it’s talked about, unfortunately I don’t recall the specific passage. It’s always interesting when military matters are mixed with more practical day to day life especially sexual or romantic issues. Granted with Vox I’m sure that the Samurai wouldn’t count cause their not Christian and those crazy pagans were defeated anyways, all thanks to the power of 50’s style conservative Christianity.
I love the way the “thing I dislike/thing that makes me uncomfortable” becomes “the end of civilisation as we know it, fire, brimstone, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and then you’ll all be sorry” so extremely fast with these lovely lovely people.
It’s almost as if the entire universe revolves around them.
In their opinion.
This is relevant.
It’s a bit like every other fundamentalist.
Magical thinking+thing I hate must be the cause of all problems.
There’s no brain there.
Why does Voxxie and his fans oppose IS again? You’d think they be happy to join. Same way of thinking, same hate towards everything non-cis-male, same inability to see anyone beyond themselves as fully human.
@vanir85 They oppose them because they’re too brown generally. If it was a bunch of Norwegians they’d be all for signing up.
Vox Day – the homeopathic historian.
(Arguments may not include any actual history, but may be seen by his acolytes as stronger because they have been succussed around his empty skull so many times.)
ISIS are busy smashing up World Heritage Sites, so I guess Pox should also disagree with that, what with him being a big culture buff, an’ all… But I reckon that any pretense at intellectual reasoning flies out of the window as soon as Pox is confronted with his terrible fear of melanin.
The idea that Beale is defending a way of life would suggest to me that that way of life is not worth defending.
Repulsive ableism aside, Alexander is missing the point. Most of the branches of the U.S. armed forces seem to have a skirt and heels option for the female dress uniform. So if they’re a woman,* and they’re instructed to wear your dress uniform, there’s no reason why the private shouldn’t be stepping out in pumps and pantyhose.
Prancing, however, would not be tolerated. That’s fancy walking, the armed services require regular walking. You must maintain your military bearing at all times.
*I know these guys don’t consider trans women to be women. They probably also want to forget that a skirt and heels uniform option exists, because I’m sure they dislike women of any stripe being in the service. Screw ’em on all counts, doubly so for the trans phobia.
Yo, it’s summer and I have a a fungal rash of the groin.
I tell you this to illustrate something less repellent than virtually everything said by Vox Day.
I’m pretty sure the old testament, not to mention the rest of history, is chock full of reasons this is a bad idea.
I mean I suppose you can always say “But what if we did it PERFECTLY RIGHT this time” and that question is still literally baked into the reasons why it’s a terrible idea
“if they’re a woman, and they’re instructed to wear
yourtheir dress uniform.”Dammit. I need a proofreader to double-check my proofreading.
I sent this to my son, the history nerd. His response:
1077th AA battalion. Not only effeminate but a unit of 16-18 year old girls. Stood toe to toe with the vaunted 16th panzer division of Guederians corps. For 3 days in open field with outdated shitty equipment. The 16th tore holes through the best French armor in minutes in 1940. Those children held them for 3 days and died to the very last girl. Saved at least 500,000 civilians in Stalingrad.
The fact that teenage girls stood against the invincible, undefeated panzers, with no infantry support, with outdated weapons meant to target aircraft for days is unbelievable. It is the single most gallant last stand in all of human history, bar none. The Spartans at Thermopylae and the Jews at Masada cannot claim a higher place
So, if trans people are allowed to join the army and then participate in the defeat of ISIS, will Beale and his followers take that as a sign that God does not disapprove? Somehow, I doubt it.
Those are some great assfacts he’s providing his readers with.
@Monzach
I’m pretty certain that the time the Hagakure was written, homosexual contact between a lord’s samurai had been generally punished as a form of high treason for a few hundred years already.
And what he actually said was that it’s okay to fall in love with your fellow Samurai, but you were basically supposed to take that love to the grave with you without ever having mentioned it to anyone, the least to the person you are in love with.
That is one of my favorite Eddie Izzard clips.
Since Vox’s fan club is only worried about a Christian army, if they hear the Vatican is organizing for war, then they should worry?
Also, I don’t get the fear of tons of people request gender reassignment surgery. From what I have seen, it looks pretty intense. I can’t imagine anyone just choosing to have it on a whim.
Hitler executed queers…including Ernst Röhm, who at one point was his main source of competition among the Nazi partisans.
Hitler, for reasons having fuck-all to do with tolerance for “effeminacy”, LOST THE WAR.
And I also note that there are gay men (and women, too) who are so damn butch that they could crumple Beale against their foreheads like a beer can. They make Tom of Finland’s guys look puny and pansy-like. Pretty sure no one’s telling them they’d lose a war.
So, that makes at least two things that Theodore Fucking Beale knows squattola about. Military history, and LGBTs.