2c79018b   
   From: green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid   
      
   Brian M. Scott  wrote:   
      
   > On Sun, 03 May 2009 12:09:36 +1000, "James A. Donald"   
   >  wrote in   
   >  in   
   > rec.arts.sf.misc:   
   >   
   > [...]   
   >   
   > > Any man so feeble in upper body strength that he   
   > > overlaps with strong women, is unlikely to become a fire   
   > > fighter.   
   >   
   > You obviously have no idea of the upper body strength of   
   > some women.   
      
   Or the weakness of some men. Or the fact that doing something once or a   
   couple of times, after which you can rest, is a completely different   
   kettle of fish from doing something for hours.   
      
   I used to work in a job that involved moderately heavy lifting (up to   
   15kg at any one time). Only you had to do it over four or five hours,   
   with lesser stuff in between, but it was a case of always moving, always   
   lifting _something_.   
      
   I used to work with a body builder who could easily lift not just two,   
   but probably if he'd tried four or five bundles at a time. That wasn't   
   called for. What *was* called for was doing it consistently. At the end   
   of a shift, he was totally wiped out - and I, overweight and much weaker   
   female that I was, could (and sometimes did) keep going.   
      
   I've seen it more strongly with a guy who regularly shifted very large   
   weights - of the sort that I admittedly cannot move at all, in a job   
   that involved 10kg parcels. My friend the dancer - all 5'3 of her - ran   
   rings around him, because strength != flexibility or endurance.   
      
   Of course I want my firemen strong enough to do their job. I also want   
   them to be intelligent enough to tackle the job in the best possible   
   manner, and sensible enough to look after themselves and not endanger   
   themselves and others. And I probably wnt them to be a host of other   
   things that I don't know about because I don't know the job inside out.   
   What I do know, however, is that the people who are doing the job and   
   whose lives depend on being able to trust the firefighter beside them   
   are unlikely to campaign for the inclusion of basically unsuitable   
   individuals, so when strength is not the decisive element in recruiting   
   a firefighter I must conclude that maybe the equation 'the stronger a   
   guy, the better a firefighter he makes' is not one that holds up.   
      
      
   Catja   
      
   --   
   writing blog @ http://beyond-elechan.livejournal.com   
      
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