STEPHANIE GUTMANN: Soldiers In Drag Are Nothing New For The Identity-Obsessed U.S. Military.

Why this happened is a long story involving changes in world power dynamics, a belief that with forever peace at hand maybe we didn’t need a military that was so, well, military, and a Congress stuffed with social engineers like Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Pat Schroeder.

Suffice to say that by 1995, when I began research for a book about gender integration in the military, the Pentagon was already obsessed with pleasing its paymasters and increasing the percentage of women in the services from its paltry 15 percent to an improbable 50/50 sex ratios in all military jobs (including infantry and submarines) and up the ranks.

In its ham-fisted and condescending attempt to make their workplace more “female-friendly,” the Army had renamed the boot camp “Obstacle Course” the “Confidence Course.” Rather than admit the embarrassing fact that the vast majority of enlisted females would fail the course on a simple completion basis, a new emphasis on “team-building” was added (women are more social, don’t you know?). In other words, recruits didn’t have to actually scale that intimidating climbing wall one. They were allowed to recruit others and, say, use a human pyramid as a kind of step stool.

Drill sergeants were herded into “sensing sessions” with their trainees where they were supposed to receive “feedback” on their leadership style. Indeed, some truly vomit-worthy training films were launched, such as one using a childish female voiceover to tell recruits that the first few weeks of their new life could be challenging but “it’s okay to cry.”

This will not end well.