China's Female Astronauts: Must Be a Married Mom

[ccharles000]

The men chosen to lead China into outer space are often referred to locally as "superhuman beings" — and not just because they train to cross the final frontier. Would-be taikonauts have to meet near impossible standards that are meant to weed out the less-than-flawless. Chinese astronauts cannot suffer from chronic sore throats or runny noses. They mustn't have food restrictions, strong regional accents, ringworm, cavities or scars. Bad breath, body odor and a snoring problem are all immediate disqualifiers. And if China's spacemen are expected to satisfy an unlikely string of qualifications, so too are its new spacewomen — with two notable additional criteria. China's first two female reserve astronauts, selected earlier this month from a pool of 15 female fighter pilots, were required to be wives and mothers.

The reasoning behind the prerequisite, according to officials, is that spaceflight could potentially harm the women's fertility. "It's out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots," Xu Xianrong, director of the PLA's Clinical Aerospace Medicine Center in Beijing and a member of the selection panel, told the official government news agency Xinhua. "Though there is little evidence on how the space experience will affect the female constitution, we have to be extra cautious, because this is a first for China." Ensuring that the female astronauts have already reproduced, he said, will guarantee that their family planning is not disrupted. But at least one authority, Zhang Jianqi, former deputy commander of the country's manned space program, has stated that the requirement stands because married women are more physically and psychologically mature.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1974793,00.html

[pitohui]

1. why can't you be a lesbian or a sterilized woman w. no desire to be a "mom"???

china, of all countries, to insist that someone be a "mom" to get a job is just stupid-ass, what happened to population control and setting an example?

what if i'm a lesbian and i have no desire to get married and be a "mom," i'd rather focus on my career? i'd prob. be a BETTER astronaut than somebody on the "mommy track"

hell, even if i'm straight, why do i have to be a "mom" to be deserving of a job? it makes no friggin' sense whatsoever

[Berry Cool]

2. And the irony is, their moms are allowed only one kid.

So they're going to all this trouble to preserve the future fertility of a woman who will be allowed only one child anyway.

[pitohui]

3. for some of us, even one child is too many

i for one have a horror of pregnancy, should women like me be denied the right to try to chase the career of our choosing?

if you're a mom, you're on the mommy track and can't get ahead, and if you're not a mom, you can't get a job in the first place?

is there a rule that a man can't be astronaut unless he's already spawned???? oh wait, let me guess, it's OK not to make choices abt having a child (or not) if you're a man -- but a woman to be "a real woman" has to have a brat

ugh, just ugh

for people who don't have this horror i guess they don't understand the unfairness of this, all i can say is, imagine someone telling you that you HAVE to carry a tumor in your body for 9 months before it can be removed...or you're not a "real" person deserving of rights

[anigbrowl]

5. Hmm...

I get the point you are making, but not the bit about having a horror of pregnancy making it unfair. People who have a horror of flying or claustrophobia are not likely to make it as astronauts either, any more than people with a horror of water are going to advance in the navy.

I really don't know what the policy is for the male taikonauts and neither do you. It would not surprise me in the least if they were required to store a semen sample or something, though. And while I appreciate that you feel offended, allow me to point out that other people may be offended by your use of the word 'brat' to describe their children.

[anigbrowl]

4. Asking a Chinese person to put their fertility at risk is an insult to their family

In the (unlikely) event that they went to space, came back, and were unable to have children as a direct result, it would be like condemning someone to a living death in social terms, and damage the reputation of their space program among ordinary people, especially because of their population control policies.

Whether or not you think it is sensible or consistent with other policies is beside the point; I don't especially, but their culture has a different perspective on these matters from ours. Stuff that doesn't bother us at all is sometimes a big deal to them and vice versa.

[treestar]

6. I wonder if they have even thought of whether it might harm male fertility

[galileoreloaded]

7. It's a security measure. We do it too, most visibly with SR71 pilots.

all had to be married men, due to the sensitive nature of the technology involved.

A little leverage, if you will.