Now: Vmi ‘Poor Losers’ Shaving Females’ Heads ‘Vindictive’

The Virginia Military Institute’s decision to admit women but make them shave their heads like male cadets was blasted Monday by the National Organization for Women as an attempt to humiliate females.

“They’re poor losers,” said Karen Johnson, a NOW vice president and retired Air Force colonel.

“The haircut is just a way of being vindictive,” she said. “In Nazi Germany, they shaved the heads of female prisoners to shame them.”

VMI voted Saturday to end its 157-year male-only tradition, taking action nearly three months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the school must admit women or give up public funding.

But the vote came with a demand: Women must have their heads shaved and pass the same physical tests as men, something even the Army, Navy and Air Force academies don’t require.

“There are some women who can do it and they would want nothing less than the VMI experience,” said VMI spokesman Mike Strickler.

The physical rigors include five pullups, 60 situps in two minutes and a 1-1/2-mile run in 12 minutes. VMI also wants female cadets treated equally in the barracks, living without locks on their doors and with curtains they may close only when changing clothes.

The rules will ensure women are treated equally, Stickler said.

“It would be demeaning to women to cut them slack in the physical requirements,” VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting said.