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Comment by lifestyleguru | Hacker News Reader

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The medical examination doesn’t say much. Your take on it that they’re perverts wanting to look at genitals tells more than you think

If it's such a non issue, why are they doing it? Ask a boy if he wants to show his genitals to the commission, we all know what will be the answer.

Isn't this just a standard part of a physical exam?

I do not know if this has changed during the recent decades, but indeed in the past it was standard in all countries for the military fitness physical exam to be done nude (for males).

Moreover, it was completely pointless to be shy about this, because if you were conscripted, the norm was to have common showers, so anyone could have a good look at you for much more than the few seconds of the physical exam.

Then why girls don't have to show their genitals during medical exam?

EDIT. I'm serious. Few girls are summoned (e.g. medical related education). They don't have to show their genitals.

Who is thee creepy pervert now?

wtf, is this a joke?

A doc holding your balls and asking you to cough checks for an inguinal hernia, where your intestine pushes through the inguinal canal. This canal is much wider in men, hence it being much more common in men.

I am in no position to judge the procedure on a medical basis but know that it is (or was) near universal for potential recruits and has become a bit of a meme.

Your strong reaction to this procedure is something for you to dwell on.

That's, like, your obsession, not their's.

I don't care. Until being 18 years old I had had no opinion or even an idea that there exist a commission waiting to see my genitals. It's when you refuse then they become obsessed to enforce and conduct the examination.

Because there is no such commission? Are you sure, you went through a mustering physical? There is no commission waiting to see your wiener. There is an MD to examine you. The MD writes a report that is attached to your file.

What the commission might get serious with is enforcing the mustering process, regardless if it is about the medical exam or the aptitude tests.

Yes there is, it's literally military commission with military medical board. Personal experience and the quality of "medical proffessionals" in it may vary from country to country.

It used to be that way, and probably will be that way again. I know of a few of people who got an early testicular cancer diagnosis that way. So it seems that there is a medical use for it.

Military medical exam is not for medical diagnosis! They don't care, they're there to enforce. It's worth the same as a dude pissing into urinal next to you and saying "nice balls mate". For official medical diagnosis you have to go through the procedures within healthcare system in your country.

True, but how many 18 year olds do you know that will just randomly get their balls checked?

Might be a different situation in other countries but in my country (Poland) showing your wiener to military guys will certainly not have any positive or constructive medical outcome. It's just a primitive domination and compliance ritual where they "verify your gender".

I had to undress back then.

But anyway:

"The Clash - The Call Up (Official Video)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScaGjwkg2Y

whats the deal here with the genitals? normal part of life, and having someone check if theres nothing weird/curious in a full body health check doesn't sound unreasonable. was okay for me too. and girls do get their private parts inspected deeper every year at the female health docs than once in a lifetime ball touching from some drafter, different level, just accept it

Don't be ridiculous. You really don't see a difference between someone choosing to see a doctor for their own benefit and the state forcing someone to be subjected to an examination for the state's benefit?

Nobody should accept gender discrimination or being touched without consent.

How far do you take that? One medical condition that has been considered militarily relevant is flat feet. If the state can draft people, can they make you show them your feet? If you can't avoid the draft but can avoid the medical exam, isn't that a way of avoiding the draft?

> can they make you show them your feet?

I see a subtle difference between being barefoot and showing cock and balls to half dozen strangers. I know of at least one American president who avoided being drafted because of his "feet situation".

at this point sensible/reasonable tradeoffs should be reintroduced again. absolutist stances like that, no matter how well intended, are bullshit. its simply not black and white, you just happen to draw a line on the extreme sensitivity side compared to others. its okay, but a you problem.

Even touch without consent is explicitly a thing that will be accepted by any sane human. example: someone grabbing your shoulders last second to pull you back from a street crossing before a car hits you that you didn't see coming by yourself. There are even laws in some countries when you do NOT help in acute situations you can go to jail. And at the end it IS touch, without consent.

I just don't get why genitals are such a big deal to begin with. but also baltic sea here, people go naked to beaches or in saunas without blinking since ever.

Isn't that just part of a physical exam in general? I remember the first physical exam I had in collage we all had to do that.

eh, this stirs memories of the similar exam in Italy (abolished ~20 years ago).

The doctor would also grab your testicles and ask to cough, to diagnose varicocele. I wonder how many young men have undiagnosed issues since the military exam was abolished.

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