As a male baton twirler, Haltom works against stereotype

Photo Credit: Trenton Haltom photo by Emily McMinn in the Daily Nebraskan
Fri, 09/09/2016 - 11:05

Trenton M. Haltom, a Ph.D. student in sociology, is one of only three male baton twirlers in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s history.

He's aware of the stigma attached to male twirlers, but he's been fascinated by it since his mother used to twirl, and he was taking lessons by the time he was 16.

“I don’t necessarily think I’m changing people’s minds about masculinity,” Haltom said. “But my presence gets people to think ‘Oh yeah, I’ve never seen that before, but a guy can twirl for a major university and actually do it pretty well.’ The coolest thing to me is just being able to break down stereotypes and change people’s ideas.”

Read more of his story in "Self-taught twirler adds diversity to UNL's team" by Abbey Lim in The Daily Nebraskan.

Photo by Emily McMinn for the Daily Nebraskan.