WHO’D HAVE THOUGHT? Secret Service Requires Female Agents to Meet Lower Physical Strength Standards Than Male Agents.
As the New York Times reported on Monday, the jumper, Omar Gonzalez, “overpower[ed] a female Secret Service agent inside the North Portico entrance” of the White House and then ran past the stairway to the presidential living quarters and into the East Room where he was finally tackled by an off-duty agent. Without explanation, the Times deleted the word “female” from the opening paragraph of its story (the Washington Post similarly edited the word “female” out of its story). . . .
According to the Secret Service [PDF], male recruits in their twenties need to perform 11 chin-ups to receive an “excellent” rating; performing four chin-ups or fewer would disqualify him from serving as a Secret Service agent.
But for a female recruit in her twenties, four chin-ups would earn her an “excellent” rating; just one chin-up is enough for her to avoid the disqualifying [PDF] “very poor” rating.
Upper body strength is overrated anyway.
Here’s an informative exchange at the “Times deleted” link, concerning the deletion:
Idiot: Good. Her gender [sic] is immaterial. Plenty of male agents have been overpowered.
Sensible Person: Name one incident in which a male Secret Service agent was overpowered.
Idiot: Stop the woman hating
Sensible Person: Is THIS another example of ‘woman hating’? 3 people died. http://murderpedia.org/male.N/n/nichols-brian-gene.htm
Grrl power.
And: Washington Post Stealth Edits Out Gender [sic] Of Female Secret Service Agent.
Also: Savage Boards Naval Destroyer Guarded by a Woman — and Kills Sailor.