Air Force pilots resisted drones partly because unmanning threatened their virility.

Evidence

In English one uses the expression “unmanned aerial vehicle” to refer to a crewless plane. But one of the troubles with unmanned aerial vehicles is literally the peril of becoming “un-manned” in every sense of the term, including “emasculated.” That also is why those Air Force officers initially put up such resistance to the general adoption of the drones. Obviously the drones threatened their own employment, their professional qualifications, and their institutional position, but the threat was also to their own virility, which was largely associated with the taking of risks. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

A revealing symptom of this is the fact that initially the most virulent criticisms of the drones came not from hopeless pacifists but from Air Force pilots, in the name of the preservation of their traditional warrior values. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 351 (#expands, via linked claim)

The problem here is that in the light of traditional values, killing by drones—crushing the enemy without ever risking one’s own skin—is still seen as the highest degree of cowardice and dishonor. The clash between the technical reality of the conduct of the war and its residual ideology presents a powerful contradiction even for the personnel of the armed forces. For them, the clash between these new weapons and the old frameworks that may be outmoded but are nonetheless influential produces a crisis in military ethos. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 350 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354; Air Force pilots were drones’ most virulent early critics, not pacifists. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 351; Drones create a crisis in military ethos by contradicting traditional warrior values. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 350

Related

• Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. (similarity 0.93)
• Air Force pilots were drones’ most virulent early critics, not pacifists. (similarity 0.91)
• Drone operators are called brave for risking their psychic rather than physical lives (similarity 0.86)
• Drones create a crisis in military ethos by contradicting traditional warrior values. (similarity 0.84)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.83)
• Armed drones make killing a priori one-directional, converting combat into slaughter. (similarity 0.80)
• Armed drone projects were framed as solving Vietnam’s political contradictions (similarity 0.80)
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. (similarity 0.80)
• Armed drones reshape sovereignty over a state’s own subjects, not just enemies (similarity 0.80)
• The drone reconciles liberal security statehood with unrestricted waging of war. (similarity 0.79)
• Drone advocates came to believe their own claims of negligible collateral damage. (similarity 0.79)
• Air Force strategists redefined counterinsurgency around airpower and drones. (similarity 0.79)
• Present-day drones combine remote control and autonomous piloting. (similarity 0.79)
• Drone use lowers the threshold so violence becomes the default foreign policy option. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. #corroborates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354
• Air Force pilots were drones’ most virulent early critics, not pacifists. #expands (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 351
• Drones create a crisis in military ethos by contradicting traditional warrior values. #expands (0.40) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 350