Ssgt Sensing: A Psychological Analysis

During my time in the United States Marine Corps, one of my immediate superiors was a Staff Sergeant by the name of Sensing. The Corps is composed of roughly 95% males and 5% females, so having a female Staff NCO was statistically unusual. When we first received word of a new SNCO coming to our shop and that she was female, there was a small amount of apprehension. Once we saw her and had spoken with her, the apprehension went away. While she was a female on a biological level, she looked and acted more in a way that was to be expected of a man. She could score a perfect 300 on the male physical fitness test, she lifted weights, she dated women, she adopted aggressive mannerisms, when not in a uniform she wore clothing usually associated with …show more content…
To begin with, she is in the military which is a male dominated occupation. Beyond that, she is a Marine. To quote professor Walker “Not only is the Marine Corps masculine, its hyper masculine”. The Marine Corps has the lowest percentage of females of all the US military branches. The expectation of females in the Corps is one of two models. They are either extremely feminine (usually with a negative connotation) or extremely masculine (one of the boys). In the case of SSgt Sensing, she embodied the masculine ideal. Her word choice was almost always as vulgar as would be socially acceptable in each particular setting, she worked out more than anyone else in the shop save PFC Nemo and PFC Augustyn who were amateur cage fighters. She possessed the ability to consume more alcohol than any male in our shop. All of these traits are highly valued in a masculine setting, even more so in a hyper masculine setting such as the Corps. Beyond these behavioral aspects, her physical appearance also corresponded more with the masculine ideal rather than the feminine one. She kept her hair as short as was allowed by the Marine Corps uniform manual P1020.34G. Her choice of clothing was usually either jeans and a t-shirt or long baggy shorts, a sports jersey and a baseball cap. Due to the nature of the Marine Corps’ lack of concern for personal …show more content…
While there are a number of different possible orientations and terms, for the purpose of analysis her I will focus on only two. There is heterosexual (attracted to and engage in sexual activities with the opposite gender) and homosexual behavior (attracted to and engage in sexual activates with members of the same gender). SSgt sexual orientation was in a way both normal and abnormal at the same time. There is an idea known as heternormality which states that heterosexuality is normal and that any other form of sexuality is distinctly removed from normal or even abnormal (Wood, 2014, p.54). Using this idea, SSgt Sensing would be classified as “abnormal”. The military in particular has had some tempestuous dealings with sexual orientation. At one point homosexuals were banned from serving, then later came the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy. Both of these policies have sense been removed, but the latter was in effect while I served with her. It was technically illegal for her to tell us about her activities with women but in her situation it became acceptable. As stated previously the Marine Corps can be a considered hyper-masculine environment where males are the default. It is expected of Marines that they be able to attract and have sexual relations with many women. While SSgt Sensing was a female, her ability to attract a mate at a bar rivaled that of the finest