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Summary Of Great To Watch By Maggie Nelson

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In “Great to Watch” by Maggie Nelson, she emphasizes how the “third term” is a solution for how people should live in this age of extremity. It is a middle ground where people connect and become engaged with one another. Through the “third term” people have shared confusion and are on the same page with any situation happening. The world is in such an age of extremity where people are extremely overflowed with emotions or feel nothing at all. With the third term, an in between space is created where people must react and acknowledge things that are normally ignored and where there are no severe reactions. Through differences and confusion, a sense of togetherness is formed which in Maggie Nelson’s essay, is the perfect in between. In “The Naked …show more content…

All of the Cadets come into the Citadel with different unique personalities and identities, but when they come to the Citadel, they put all of those to the side. When becoming a “Whole Man” at the Citadel the Cadets clear all differences and possess one identity, a masculine, tough, man. A Cadet states, “it’s like we’re all one, we’re all the same, and-I don’t know- you feel like you’re exposed, but you feel safe”(75). Even though each person is different, they are in the same place doing the same thing which connects them on another level. Through connection, the Cadets feel comfortable and feel like they are going through the same thing as everyone else there, its a sense of feeling at home. Maggie Nelson states the third term “relates people to each other, with relation signifying the process of being brought together and given a measure of space from each other at the same time”(309). All of the Cadets have relationships and spend all of their days doing the exact same thing which unites them. But, they also have a sense of space from each other. The older Cadets harass and abuse the younger ones to teach them lessons and show tough love, but at the same time, they are both in this …show more content…

People are able to interpret things differently and don’t have to simply follow the dominant meaning of something. She states, “how at every moment, the world presents us with a composition in which a multitude of meanings and realities are available, and you are able to swim, lucid and self-contained, in that turbulent sea of multiplicity” (311). When presented with something, someone is able to create multiple meanings and definitions by what they choose. This relates to Susan Faludi’s essay “The Naked Citadel” where the Cadets go to the Treehouse due to their gender confusion. At the Treehouse, the Cadets have sexual relationships with the Drag Queens there which creates a stereotype that they are actually feminine and not a “Whole Man”. When in reality, they don’t wish to run away from being a Cadet and a tough male, that is who they look up to and still strive to be like. Susan Faludi states, “they can act like human beings in the safety of the daily domestic life of the barracks. But, in return, the institutions demands that they never cease to act like man” (103). Going to the Treehouse allows the Cadets to escape their perceived tough, masculine lifestyle to let go and do what they please. The Treehouse allows the Cadets to act as a human being instead of being pressured to be perceived as a man. At the end of the day, they still perform feminine tasks at the Citadel which

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