If you’ve been on any social media site over the past few weeks you have probably scrolled through posts discussing the topic of women being drafted into the military. The memes that joke about how we’d be late to the battlefield because we were struggling to get the perfect slicked-back bun seem funny and relatable—at first glance. However, when you go to search up whether or not we actually should worry about having to switch out our miniskirts for camo, no factual evidence supporting those claims seems to pop up! So where did the rumors of the girlies being drafted come from?
History Of Women Being Drafted
So, has the government actually considered actually drafting women? Well, while it was brought up in court in the 1981 Supreme Court case Rostker v. Goldberg, the idea was quickly struck down. The issue at hand was regarding the Military Selective Service Act of 1973, which gave the president the authority to mandate that men register for the draft but not women.
President Jimmy Carter opted to reinstate the Act in 1980 and include women in the registration requirement procedure, despite the Act having been deactivated in 1975. This case was built on the argument that the exemption of women from the draft was gender-based discrimination, which violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Long story short, that argument did not hold up very well in court. You’re welcome for the brief history lesson! Anyway, it looked like the girlies lived to see another day draft-free! Until…
What Changed?
…TikTok user @nationalmechanicsgroup uploaded a video claiming that following the attack on Israel by Hamas, President Joe Biden had plans of drafting women into the US military. To say the least, he, along with many others, were incredibly frustrated by the thought of their wives and daughters being forced onto the battlefield, which he expressed in his video. He states, “You protect women and children because it’s the societal norm. It has nothing to do with being sexist or being unequal in any way. The fact is you should always protect people that are weaker themselves and always stand up for the right f–king thing.” Yikes!
However, it turns out that the Biden Administration never made any comments regarding including women in the next draft, or any news of another draft at all. As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been a draft in the United States since 1973. While one quick fact check debunks the rumors of women being drafted, many TikTok users are not aware of that.
TikTok Trends
The fake news of the girlies being drafted spread like wildfire over various social media platforms, especially TikTok. A number of users, such as @ellepang12, have shared videos depicting a satirical perspective on how women would be on the battlefield. In this particular TikTok, there is a compilation of fictitious scenarios of tank crashes, battlefield photoshoots, and group bathroom trips with the girlies over the song “SkeeYee” by Sexyy Red.
Others include the girlies flirting with enemy soldiers, using war to release their built-up anger issues, and blasting Taylor Swift as motivation on the battlefield. Starbucks runs, post-war selfies, and hair tutorials seem like the perfect combination for slaying while in combat.
While it doesn’t look like we will actually be making our way onto the battlefield anytime soon, the memes that have come out of this rumor make the idea seem entertaining at least. Let’s just hope that if the time comes, we are all able to rock the slicked-back bun look. Needless to say, the girlies are here to serve!