The fascinating article “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi explores the hidden world of early 1990s cadets in a school that, until the admittance of Shannon Faulkner, was an all-male military school. Through Faludi’s research she discovers the innate homophobia and sexism in the school. This article provides us with a glimpse into the nature of human beings, and the behavior that inevitably comes out when group mentality leads people to fear the non-familiar. In this case, Faludi reveals the inner-turmoil of cadets hiding hazing trauma, forbidden love, sexual harassment, and more, and simultaneously allows us to reflect on how we interact with people who are different than us.
Faludi takes us through the average day of a cadet, from the dress code, to classes, to their relationships with other cadets, to night life. Everything in the Citadel is defined by its purity and exactness. The cadet shirt tuck is one of extreme precision. The boundaries and rules are incredibly tight to enforce the strict image of the ideal cadet. Because of this, the cadets derive a sense of safety, conformity, and strength. They see the Citadel and its members as a type of long standing brotherhood that has always represented loyalty to country and strength. The boys see the Citadel as a fortress in which they find refuge from the civilian world that is full of temptation, distraction, injustice, and senselessness.
They feel that they can find security and discover the extent of their own abilities. Allowing a female to enter the ranks is considered, by many of the cadets, an intrusion on the sanctity of the Citadel. In fact, Faulkner faces a fight to bring down legal barriers that the school presents to keep her away. Faludi finds that, among other things, one of the most important factors at the school is the all-male bathrooms and showers. “Weighing heaviest on the cadets’ minds, it turned out, was the preservation of the all-male communal bathroom. The sharing of the stall-less showers and stall-less toilets is ‘at the heart of the Citadel experience,’ according to more than one cadet” (Faludi 64). The cadets insist that this is an integral part of the Citadel, that promotes the lifestyle that they want the cadets to follow—one of trust in one’s fellow man and the sense that everyone is together working towards the same goal. Hazing is another serious issue that Faludi explores during her time at the Citadel. Reports of serious and violent hazing have been present for decades, accusing cadets at the school of such heinous acts as exhausting students with exercise, excessive drinking, physical abuse, even death threats. Faludi mentions that “the Board of Visitors overruled the expulsion of a senior cadet who had reportedly been threatening freshmen with a pistol” (Faludi 71).
This is central to Faludi’s argument that the Citadel was encouraging this behavior simply by allowing it, and that the cadets themselves can not carry all the blame because the society and school they were in was pushing them towards these foregone conclusions. Faludi believed that men are pushed by our society, into certain roles that are considered masculine and, as a result, are robbed of their unique personal identity. Thus, she sees the behavior of the cadets as conditioned responses to the beliefs, attitudes and rules of our culture.
The cadets believed that the Citadel provided them a place to be free from the boundaries of our society. They saw the outside world as impeding on the development of their characters, and an inhibiting force on their ability to grow as men. The cadets saw the Citadel as a center for masculinity, physical endurance and growth, and intellectual refinement, while the outside world was one of chaos and broken rules, where no one lived by the honor instilled in them at their school. However, what the Citadel truly provided was not a place at which they could develop themselves, but a place in the mind where they could free themselves from the unfair roles they had to play as part of the real world. Faludi concludes her article with the following statement: “The cadets at The Citadel feel that something about their life and routine is worthy on its merits and is endangered from without. And in that they may be right” (Faludi 86). Perhaps this is Faludi’s way of telling her readers that, despite the deviant hazing and abusive behaviors reported, she somehow identifies with the cadets. Surely, we all understand the need for refuge from what can be a daunting and oppressive society.
Perhaps the most telling passage of Faludi’s work is the following: “That they must defend their inner humanity with outer brutality may say as much about the world outside the Citadel walls as about the world within them” (Faludi 85). The Citadel became a breeding grounds for the manifestations of issues cadets brought with them from the outside world; their behavior can be justified by the damage that they entered the school with, a result of living in a world that endlessly manipulates men into fulfilling somewhat archaic roles. True growth for these cadets, however, must come from within and not from the tactile resources one finds.
The differences we exhibit are what make this world a fascinating and fulfilling place to live. No matter what we do, we can not escape from our own labels. Whether its gender, social class, sexual preference, race, or religion, society develops a way to force us into certain roles. Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel”, above all, shows us that these labels follow us wherever we go. It is up to us to define ourselves independently of how our culture perceives us.
Works Cited
Susan Faludi, “The Naked Citadel,” The New Yorker, 1994, p. 62.