Faludi The Close Analysis

When it comes to the very fabric of how individuals act and think, there are many different reasons that can explain the many aspects of what a human does. In terms of identities, it can be considered to be not only their personality, but also their maturity as well as their experiences and how those affect them. An identity is not set in stone either, although it is capable of straying off the path slightly, and can be adjusted to meet the requirements of others, whether voluntarily or not. An identity can be molded from many different types of environments, for example through nature or through nurture. Even though many people can go through the same types of influences that are designed to make everyone equal, there is no such thing. People

Faludi brings up the argument brought to her attention when she found out that "the rule that so many of the cadets say brought them to this Moorish-style, gated campus: Girls keep out" (Faludi 73). It's not a result of the torture that they experience or even the brotherhood causing them to develop a curiosity towards their fellow men. Rather, Faludi talks about "'The proper terminology for The Citadel,' a customer at the bar named Chris said, 'is The Closet.' Up and down the bar, heads bobbed in agreement. 'They love faggots like me.' What he meant by 'like me' however, was not that he was gay. That night, he looked like a male model-sleek black hair and a handsome, chiseled face. But on the nights he was dressed for a performance he could pass for a woman. Arching an eyebrow, Chris said, 'The cadets go for the drag queens'" (Faludi 101). This goes to show that the opposition against women in The Citadel is not based on protection against the companionship, but rather the lack of interest in women. "In the late-twentieth-century setting of The Citadel, in a time when extreme insecurity and confusion about masculinity's standing run rampant, the Corps of Cadets once again seeks to obscure a domestic male paradise with an intensifying of virile showmanship and violence. The result is a ruthless intimacy, in which physical abuse stands in for physical affection, and every display of affection must be counterbalanced by a display of sadism. Knobs told me that they were forced to run through the showers while the upperclassmen 'guards' knocked the soap out of their hands and, when the knobs leaned over to retrieve it the upperclassmen would unzip their pants and yell, 'Don't pick it up, don't pick it up! We'll use you like we used those girls!' (Faludi