http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chelsea-manning-long-hair_55fd76eee4b0fde8b0ce7c8e?utm_hp_ref=crime&ir=Crime§ion=crime
The article I chose discusses the controversy of the military denying Chelsea Manning to grow her hair to the women's grooming standard. Manning is a transgender military whistleblower who is in the process of transitioning and is serving prison time for releasing sensitive US documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The main controversy in this case lives in the military's inconsistency of power. They have allowed Manning to receive necessary hormone treatments, speech therapy, and cosmetics but refuse to let her grow her hair to the women's grooming standard. There is also controversy about how she is being treated in a men's correctional facility.
I thought this controversy would be an interesting to apply to Hobbes' idea of justice because I think Hobbes could see this controversy as both just and unjust. In chapter 15 of Hobbes, he qualifies justice as following the social contract of the state you enter into, so, whatever the state says goes. Hobbes also describes the sovereign or the ruler's power as incontestable. So, even though it doesn't seem fair that the authorities are giving Manning some rights but not others she just has to accept what she can get because she entered this social contract and to go against that social contract would be unjust. Also, morality is not involved in Hobbes' justice so just because it is unfair that Manning is given some rights and not others is invalid. However, the state has already provided Manning with multiple other rights regarding her transition so to deny her something they have already given her would be unjust. It is not just to decide to bestow rights on a person but then decide that only a couple of those rights are actually applicable. Also, they have been treating Manning as a woman in every other aspect so it would be unjust to stop treating her like a woman in this one aspect. I agree with the argument that this is unjust. It is not just to give Manning only a portion of the rights she is entitled to for arbitrary reasons or "because I said so". If the state has agreed to give her the right to pursue all these other treatments for her transition then there is no reason allowing her to grow her hair to the women's grooming standard should be an issue.
I agree that the way the state is treating Manning is unjust. Manning does have to follow the contract of the state she is in, but the state is also picking and choosing which rights they are allowing her, whereas they are not doing this for other inmates. The article also mentions that Manning faced solitary confinement and had recreation privileges suspended for minor violations such as having an expired tube of toothpaste. This issue, along with the fact that the state is required to treat Manning for gender dysphoria but isn't, are both signs that the state is acting unjustly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Sammy previously replied, that the way the state is treating Manning is unjust. I think Hobbes would agree that if Manning does not like how her state is treating her that she can leave her state. However, this situation is different in the sense that state is giving her some rights, but not others. The fact that the state seems to be arbitrarily choosing which rights to give Manning and then others not to give her makes the state's actions unjust.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is unfair to say you can do x and y bit not z, especially when z is something like growing out your hair when becoming a woman. Getting people to treat you as a woman is hard especially if your hair cut makes you look like a man, as military cuts do. I think that the state is picking on Manning because they or someone in a place of power does not agree with her change. This would mean that someone is forcing their beliefs and values onto someone else, which I also believe to be unjust. The fact that she got in trouble for having an expired tube of toothpaste is ludicrous, I am sure that there are other inmates that have done significantly worse and gotten away with it. Also diagnosing her with gender dysphoria when she doesn't have it is unjust, she will never be able to go back to the military now if she even wants to and it will be very hard for her to get a job just because she has a mental illness. Not to mention that her health insurance will cost more. This is terribly unjust, especially considering all she has been through. I'm sure it could not have been easy to become a woman in while in the military.
ReplyDeleteI agree Devon that to only give half rights is totally wrong. The military has already went far enough to try to assure that Chelsea is having a proper transition and to deny her the right of something such as growing out her hair as all women seems like discrimination to me. It seems that they are refusing to allow Chelsea all the rights she holds as a woman in the military. I can't say it is because she is transgender because they have already granted her certain rights but to not allow her all is wrong.
ReplyDelete