Appoint female UPDF chief

Feminists rightly complain about a patriarchy controlling women with puppet strings fashioned from their apron springs. 

Whether there is such a system of government or not speaks to the extent women have been confined to the subservient roles of housewives or helpmates.

Still, it’s true, women “hold up half the sky”.
So it makes perfect sense that we redress historical wrongs done to them by addressing their rightful societal role as equals to men.   

Sure, we have had women anointed and appointed to varying species of leadership.
However, this smacks of tokenism when the majority of women are stuck in traditional roles which robotise their worth as tools of men.  
Indeed, appointments as Speaker or Vice President have not elevated the status of women. Instead, such appointments have thrown up an illusion of inclusion. 

If women want real power, they must be elevated to lead the true bastion of masculinity: the military. 
Historically, the army has been what separates the men from the boys and, by cultural extension, men from the women. 
This institutional divisionism arose in the ancient Greek polis, where men were equals.

 Outside the polis, however, namely households, men dominated women under a rule of force. 
It was a duality serving the men, while the women floundered in its backwash. 
Later, such chauvinism was symbolised by the modern icons for male and female.

In Western military traditions, which became ours thanks to colonialism, these icons were shaped from ancient astronomical symbols for the planet-god Mars and planet-goddess Venus. 
The icon for men is formally known as “the blade”, and it represents aggression and manhood. 
To be sure, this blade resembles a pyramid (read phallus). And, as a symbol, is used today on modern military uniforms to denote rank.

To the uninitiated, a phallus is a male “member”. 
Both male and female know the manly significance males append, if you like, to their “pyramidal endowments”.  
This is why army uniforms have this pyramidal symbol on them.
   
By implication, this could also be the reason why women were only allowed to join modern armies when Loretta Walsh was enlisted in 1917. 
If they had joined earlier, I contend, this pyramid would’ve been inverted to represent lady instead of male “pyramids”.
At any rate, the army is the ultimate expression of masculinity. 

That’s why there has never been a female army commander, in any army, anywhere. 
Even in America, where feminism is leaps and bounds ahead of other nations, Lori Robinson, US Air Force general, is the highest-ranking woman in United States military history. 
In Uganda, we have Lt Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso as the highest ranking female officer in the Ugandan military.

If we truly wish to overturn the so-called patriarchy in Uganda, we must elevate a woman to head the army. 
This will set a precedent which recasts our collective subconscious mind with respect to sexuality and how it relates to gender roles. 
To be sure, the subconscious mind is neutral in a moral sense; ready to adopt any habit as ‘normal’; good or bad. 

If we allow thoughts of a female army commander into the subconscious, such thoughts will find expression in a newfound belief that men and women can ultimately do the same jobs. 
For army leadership is ultimately reserved for men as fulfilment of a man’s traditional role as “protector”. 
 
With a “protectress”, we will not only invert society’s pyramid to place those at the bottom (women) on top, but we will also blur the line between the genders.  
This way, we redress socio-cultural differences arising from sexuality by integrating masculinity and femininity towards a shared humanity.

Mr Matogo is co-host of the RX Radio satirical show: Hear Me Out.         [email protected]