I went to all boys’ schools. Apparently they don’t exist in the public systems in America any more, but they did here before the concept of co-education and the socialisation of older children was recognised as important. The boy culture was one of primitive barbarity overlaid with the thin film of civilisation the education system tried to apply to it. One of its most obnoxious features was the crude ‘might is right’ ethic, which was unaffected by the war against Fascism which raged during my schooldays. Boys desperate to be men were certain that to count for anything, a male had to be bigger and stronger than the other males, and certainly bigger and more powerful than any female of any age. It was the fallacy of sexual dimorphism carried to a reuctio ad absurdum extreme.
There’s a well-known march tune called ‘Blaze Away’ which, like many military tunes, had its own set of vulgar words known to soldiers and many schoolboys. One line went: ‘The poor little bugger will never play rugger, he won’t be sufficiently strong…’ This summed up the childish version of might is right, which is still festering among us as worship of rugby players and other over-muscled footballers. The fact that they are regularly shown up as drunks, liars, druggies and cheats matters not at all to their followers. The pictures of them being carried off the field crying after their leg being hurt in a game hasn’t changed this perception.
In war, the immature part of the male population hasn’t yet caught on to the fact that, once inside a war machine, physical size becomes not only unimportant, but often inconvenient. They are horrified by the idea of women – female persons! – becoming combat pilots, sailors, and even combat infantry. They still believe that if they are strong enough to overpower a smaller woman, they are the natural ones to rule the roost, much like the feathered bird with a fancy comb in the henhouse. Even the Elizabethans had a word for them : “Coxcombs”. Show-off roosters!
I have always been smaller and lighter than many women. Yet I was accepted as a trainee pilot in the Air Force. Physical strength took second place to intelligence and ability here. The service never doubted that size and strength didn’t count in the cockpit, though some sportsmen succeded in this field. Nobody can tell the size of the pilot of a jet from below…
