The strength and dominance of man is marketed as the product that the Citadel romanticizes to create a profit. The metaphor of the Citadel man extends far beyond the criteria of just man. Men who do not attend the Citadel were not as manly as the men who did attend the school that was long considered “...’the big bad macho school’” (Faludi 79) as former R.O.T.C commander Major General Roger E Wagner put it. The Citadel even believed that freshman, or “knobs”, “... lacked the swagger and knowingness of the bug men on campus.” (Faludi 79). The men that did not attend the Citadel and even the freshmen who have just entered are merely boys who do not show the strength and dominance that a Citadel man possesses. This superiority of the Citadel
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Watters explains this marketing technique by saying that “One culture can reshape how a population in another culture categorises a given set of symptoms, replace their explanatory model, and redraw the line demarcating normal behaviour and internal states from those considered pathological.” (519). The Citadel draws new lines for the actions of men which romanticize violence as something that gives strength and dominance. These new lines are marketed for both the cultures inside and outside the Citadel to convince parents and future cadets alike that actions like hazing in the Citadel are nothing to fear because they make boys into Citadel men. Every year the freshman knobs are hazed by the seniors in brutal ways. From being attacked in the dark by multiple upperclassmen to having “...a face split open with jaw and nose broken.” (Faludi 86), freshman have to endure all of these harsh hazing traditions from senior cadets. For minor accusations freshmen are beaten by seniors and the seniors claim that the abuse they give is “...no different from the ‘motivational’ treatment they had received as [knobs] at the hands of the …show more content…
A physical embodiment of some of the results of gender identity metaphors in the Citadel is the Treehouse. Just by reading about the Treehouse, the reader is left feeling the same confusion as the cadets must have felt when going there. The cadets that go to the Treehouse engage in acts that are the complete opposite of the traits that embody a Citadel man. The cadets have sex with drag queens and the drag queen show dominance over the cadet. These males that are dressed and represent females take control over the Citadel cadets. One drag queen said that she “...used to make [the cadet] where his Shako-The Citadel military cap- when they were having sex. [It was] manhood at its most.” (Faludi 106) In the Treehouse, the cadets participate in symbolic acts of disrespect towards the Citadel by engaging in acts that are looked down upon by the Citadel while wearing a cap that represents the Citadel. Mocking the symbol of The Citadel is referred to as manly in the Treehouse and the cadets follow through with the commands that the drag queens make. This shows that the cadets lack both the dominance to control the drag queens and have no strength to stand up for their school. The identity crisis continues when a drag queen admits her cadet boyfriend wanted to dress up as a cadet for Halloween. This is quite literally a symbol that the cadet does not see
Watters explains this marketing technique by saying that “One culture can reshape how a population in another culture categorises a given set of symptoms, replace their explanatory model, and redraw the line demarcating normal behaviour and internal states from those considered pathological.” (519). The Citadel draws new lines for the actions of men which romanticize violence as something that gives strength and dominance. These new lines are marketed for both the cultures inside and outside the Citadel to convince parents and future cadets alike that actions like hazing in the Citadel are nothing to fear because they make boys into Citadel men. Every year the freshman knobs are hazed by the seniors in brutal ways. From being attacked in the dark by multiple upperclassmen to having “...a face split open with jaw and nose broken.” (Faludi 86), freshman have to endure all of these harsh hazing traditions from senior cadets. For minor accusations freshmen are beaten by seniors and the seniors claim that the abuse they give is “...no different from the ‘motivational’ treatment they had received as [knobs] at the hands of the …show more content…
A physical embodiment of some of the results of gender identity metaphors in the Citadel is the Treehouse. Just by reading about the Treehouse, the reader is left feeling the same confusion as the cadets must have felt when going there. The cadets that go to the Treehouse engage in acts that are the complete opposite of the traits that embody a Citadel man. The cadets have sex with drag queens and the drag queen show dominance over the cadet. These males that are dressed and represent females take control over the Citadel cadets. One drag queen said that she “...used to make [the cadet] where his Shako-The Citadel military cap- when they were having sex. [It was] manhood at its most.” (Faludi 106) In the Treehouse, the cadets participate in symbolic acts of disrespect towards the Citadel by engaging in acts that are looked down upon by the Citadel while wearing a cap that represents the Citadel. Mocking the symbol of The Citadel is referred to as manly in the Treehouse and the cadets follow through with the commands that the drag queens make. This shows that the cadets lack both the dominance to control the drag queens and have no strength to stand up for their school. The identity crisis continues when a drag queen admits her cadet boyfriend wanted to dress up as a cadet for Halloween. This is quite literally a symbol that the cadet does not see