Today's Vocabulary Word

Dimorphism.

di·mor·phism

(dī-môr′fĭz′əm)
n.
1. Biology The existence among animals of the same species of two distinct forms that differ in one or more characteristics, such as coloration, size,or shape.
2. Botany The occurrence of two distinct forms of the same parts in one plant, as in the juvenile and adult leaves of ivy.
3. Chemistry & Physics Dimorphic crystallization.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sexual dimorphism is where the two distinct forms differ along gender lines.

Most complex life on Earth is sexually dimorphic.  Including humans.

This fact, beyond all others, is why nearly all women aren't going to ever pass an honestly run Marine Infantry Officer's course, Ranger School or BUDS.  Men and women are simply different, and it's no human created bias that makes it so, it's simply nature.  Evolution.

I am not the first person to notice.

Why are these courses set up the way they are?

Mostly because the product of these schools have mostly been successful.  That's why most traditions stand, they appear to work.

Which brings us to the goal of such schools.  What is the goal of the Marine Infantry Officer's Course?  If it's to make good officers for Marine infantry, you've got to prove that any change you make won't affect the output.

The standards of these schools were come to organically.  They developed slowly over time.  Is it possible that an officer who cannot pass the PT test is a good leader?  Sure!  But if you dig back you're going to see that there's a correlation between physical fitness and leadership acumen.  Perhaps not a causal relationship, but a real relationship nonetheless.

What we're doing with Ranger school is making changes so that the girls can physically pass it, without regards to the graduates being good Rangers.  Odds are they won't be.  At present they won't be going to a Ranger or infantry battalion.  It's literally just promotion points to them.

Promotion points.

Career enhancement.

Sick that the boys in combat arms are always promoted faster and higher.

Without regard that there could be a solid reason for that.  The boys in supply and JAG don't get those promotions either.  Almost as if it's been proven that combat arms, infantry in particular, breeds the officers you want in charge of your army when there's shooting going on.  Combat arms is someplace that women are presently banned from, so they're banned from the big chairs by design.

That link up there points out the physical problems about women in combat arms that's going to prove insurmountable.  It's not just the grunts with physically demanding work.  The example cited is loading the main gun round; but that's not even close to the hardest physical job on a tank.  I'd be curious to see how long a team of four women takes to break track on an Abrams.

Over and over the specter of upper body strength surfaces and it's simply dimorphism that's the underlying problem for combat.  It's a form of The Cold Equations and wishful thinking and good intentions won't change them.

Changing the standards only for the women and just so that they can pass is a disservice to everyone involved and is far more sexist than applying the existing standard to all comers.