Last year, Hegseth introduced new sex-neutral fitness standards that sought to eliminate sex-based grading for combat soldiers on the military’s physical fitness exam. That exam includes a 3-mile run, push-ups or pull-ups, and an abdominal plank. When the standards were announced, some analysts worried it could lead to fewer women enlisting.
But a new report from The War Horse, a nonprofit newsroom, suggests that Hegseth’s new standards were not making the military more masculine, as he seemed to hope. The report found that 90% of female Marines in combat roles who took the fitness test passed or exceeded expectations.
That’s still a loss of 10% of the women, compared to 4% of the men. Itay simply be a game of incremental exclusion, not one big purging.
I struggle to believe incremental exclusion is anywhere near Hegseth’s goals. Incremental doesn’t describe anything they’ve done so far.
It isn’t his goal, it’s the result of his incompetence. He isn’t capable of a significant success without the method being crude and straightforward cuz he’s a dumb dumb. He can’t act with complexity or subtly, it’s psychologically beyond his potential. He’ll try a bunch of stuff he thinks will work, as he has, it will mostly fail, he’ll get yelled at and threatened by Trump and he’ll migrate to those crude and straightforward methods to get results rather than suffer Donald’s wrath. He’s a child trying to prove he’s capable and he’d rather hurt others with crude, cruel and destructive methods than fail and be hurt by daddy Trump.
Its literally the psychology of a child with an abusive, demanding parent, who hurts classmates and cheats at everything to get the results that will avoid getting hurt by that parent, and Trump is the archetypical tyrannical, narcissistic parent, who hurt ppl to get what he wants. The two are reliving their own childhood dynamics with each other but in the fucking white house. Its a disgusting and extreme portrayal of the social dynamics of Republican and right wing households all over America.
I read about this - around 96% of men pass, and 90% of women. Really good results, the test is not easy.
I know my athletic daughter, the gymnast, could always beat guys at pull -ups when she was little because she was so light and strong and could just crank them out like it was nothing. Push ups will ever be easier for men, weight distribution, but pull ups are a strength -to-weight situation so a trained woman can sometimes be at an advantage.
Pull ups aren’t on the physical exam as far as I know.
Though a gymnast will normally crush at planking and that is on there
The push up thing always confused me. Basic weight distribution in men is heavier in the chest and women being heavier toward the hips and thighs. So from a purely physics standpoint and my basic understanding of levers, in a second class lever the further a weight is from the fulcrum, the more work that has to be done. So wouldn’t that make pushups easier for women? I mean negating the basic strength differences but also subject to those same strength to weight ratios?
I guess it’s just shoulders, then? I do think shorter people would have an advantage and women generally are shorter as well. But I have not known a woman who could beat a similarly fit guy in push ups.
I know I could not do one good push up until I had too much mass to manage a pull up, lol. I can now because of yoga, my strength is more distributed than when I was dancing, and there is a lot of tricep work in power yoga.
Because the women applying know they will be held to a much higher standard than the men, as always. So they are prepared.
Bonus points to: knowing that they will have to fight off their fellow, extra rapey, enlisted counterparts.
Edit: before I get the colic boys giving wojak tears
On average, during the war in Afghanistan, 24% of active duty women and 1.9% of active duty men experienced sexual assault
You’re exactly right:
Women in the Army Are More Likely to Be Killed by Fellow Soldiers Than Enemy Combatants
A first-of-its-kind analysis by The Intercept found that in the Army, women are more likely to be killed by their fellow service members than by enemy combatants, in a reversal of the threat soldiers are trained to face. Between 2011 and August 2025, at least 41 women died by homicide in the Army — more than half of them at the hands of other service members or veterans. Using Defense Department manpower data to calculate per capita death rates, The Intercept found that active-duty Army women face a higher risk of homicide than male soldiers, the opposite of national and global trends.
In many cases, women in the Army are killed by current or former romantic partners. Over 70 percent of victims had an intimate relationship with the perpetrator at one point, and the rate of homicides among women soldiers from intimate partner violence is at least three times higher than the national average.
I do wonder how that compares to the DV rates for Law Enforcement. I would tend to assume it’s a bit worse among LEOs actually. Armed forces tend to draw from a slightly wider pool, with the more… enthusiastic ending up in law enforcement after discharge.
24% seems low. The Invisible War goes into some horrific details about this issue.
I’m certain it is. The military self-selects for a specific type of person.
This guy is such a moron. The only reason he even has the job is that donnie was sure he’d be loyal to donnie and donnie saw him on the TV.
The fact that this fucking asshole is playing a role in judging the ranks, and even getting to meddle in the Scouts is a goddamned outrage.
I hope he goes to prison in the aftermath.
If the wars continue, and they will, there will be a draft.
Nope. Well, not unless the fascists rig the lottery to only draft POC. Which, tbf, sounds like exactly something they would do.
Next test: Pee distance?
From the linked “report” (more like an article):
According to Marine Corps data, 91.38% of women and 96.53% of men in combat arms who have taken the test since January have met or exceeded that threshold.
That exam includes a 3-mile run, push-ups or pull-ups, and an abdominal plank.
I mean, that’s not much of a physical exam. Pretty much any person who isn’t physically limited in some way could achieve this level of fitness in a short time. I knew these fascists didn’t think much of women but I didn’t realize they thought they were totally physically incompetent. You really thought that women couldn’t jog for three miles? Or do a plank? haha
And out of the other armed forces, that’s the most difficult set of minimums. When I was enlisted, the Marine Corps was the only branch that required more than a 2-mile run. Some even less than that.
