Female USAFA Cadets Majority of Masculinity Class
The Colorado Springs Gazette, local to the US Air Force Academy, highlighted USAFA’s addition of an academic elective entitled “Men and Masculinity” (previously noted here).
Visiting Professor Christopher Kilmartin, of the University of Mary Washington, is teaching a course on masculinity at the U.S. Air Force Academy this semester, as part of a new program to discourage sexual assaults…
“My job as an educator is to name the pressure” that exists for males to conform to unhealthy masculine stereotypes, Kilmartin continued.
The article notes the elective is filled with cadets, “most of whom are female.” Females make up less than 20% of the cadet wing.
No word on when USAFA will offer a course of “Women and Femininity” — or if most of the students would be male.
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I think Peofessor Kilmartin has done quite a but for the military in this area. There was some criticism to this when it was announced last June and nearly all of it was by men who only brought up the course on ‘men and masculinity’ and said nothing of the ‘interpersonal violence’ course being taught. I personally think this is a step in the right direction because it’s confronting this issue with a more pragmatic approach through education rather than just implement more strict regs on the issue and will hopefully get people talking about it, which is what Prof. Kilmartin indicated was his premise for agreeing to teach this course.