FREE ESSAY ON GENDER IN THE MILITARY

GENDER IN THE MILITARY

Gender in the Military: Critique
Gina Carreno's essay "Gender in the Military" explicates the issues that women face in
the military. Carreno addresses the discriminations and the abuse that women are
subjected to in the military. Although some may argue that there are several weak points,
Gina Carreno has a way of bringing out the stronger aspects of her argument, for example;
the way she backs up her topics by citing them, and she also leaves room for her audience
to form their own opinions.
In summary, "Gender in the Military," explains how gender, race, and sexual orientation
are handled in the U.S. military. The article is more female based, for example; "women
are often victims of sexual discrimination and abuse, as well as domestic violence"
(212). According to this essay, military officials encourage this type of behavior, and
the victims, in general, are looked down upon. Gina Carreno uses the Shannon Faulkner
battle with The Citadel as one of her many examples. Another example is that the men in
the military are referred to in feminine ways if they whine or show fear. However, the
most demeaning example of sexual discrimination towards women is when the military
personnel encourage women to stay in these abusive relationships. The essay continues on
to say how African American women are in a "double jeopardy" situation by being both
African American and a women. "Gender in the Military," goes as far as writing that we
are living in a male dominated world with specific expectations, and " as long as we view
the world in terms of gender, and as long as we favor maleness over femaleness men will
dominate women" (214).
To begin critiquing, Carreno's biggest weakness is the way she veers from the issue at
hand. One example is the way she sets a side the issue; the way women are being treated
in the military, to feminist, views about whether or not women should be in the military.
By reading Carreno's essay, readers can clearly understand that women are already in the
military but are having a hard time being accepted. The way Carreno strays from one topic
to another instead of staying on topic can confuse her readers. Some readers may think
the way Carreno presented extra information in terms of the general topic that she helped
her specific topics to be better understood. If that is the case then Carreno should be
careful with how she presented the information. Maybe have an introduction and present
the extra information then go into the specific topic. With an essay such as this, the
author should have stayed on task to draw her readers into her topic on a deeper
intellectual level than she did.
Carreno placed her thesis at the end of the essay, rather then the beginning, in order to
draw her readers in. She did this to make the audience read deeper and question what her
position is on the topic. This is a strategically, well thought out way of organizing her
essay. By writing this way, she pulls her readers in and causes them to look more
thoroughly into what they are reading. Some may argue that this is not a good way of
developing a paper, but if Carreno took a different route the audience would have never
got all that they did out of the essay.
In addition, the best part of the essay is how Carreno noted many examples that supported
her arguments. She not only discuses how different genders act in the military, she also
backed it up with examples. The Shannon Faulkner story with The Citadel, she uses the
example of the charges filed against Army Sergeant Major Gene C. McKinney in August of
1997. Carreno gave accounts of how and why things happened and speculations about actions
that the people involved took. An example of this is the McKinney sexual abuse charges
that were made irrelevant by stating that; " the woman who filed charges was a lesbian
and had been lying about the charges "(215). Carreno had the facts to back the arguements
as well. Another example of how the writer shows facts and examples is with The Citadel
story. A school that had been male dominated for over 150 years, had not been challenged,
until Miss Faulkner felt as though she could do a "man's" job and filled out an
application without omitting her gender. She was accepted until the school official found
out that she was a woman. Faulkner was then removed from the school. The way this
information was presented made this a strong essay. Her organization was understandable
because of the way that she broke the information down into sections and gave
straightforward replies to the arguments.
Overall, the article was well written. When reading Carreno's essay the reader should
remember to read carefully and with an open mind. Carreno's biggest strength was how she
developed her views into the reader so that they would have an area to develop their own
thoughts, before knowing the authors. By doing this, the reader gains a better
understanding of what Gina Carreno was arguing. She presented the essay in an effective
matter that gave the readers the possibility of forming their own opinions. Although in
some instances, she veered off the topic. All in all she held it all together by giving
proof and citing her examples, yet if she would not have changed issues in half way
through the paper it may have been a little stronger.
Bibliography
Carreno, Gina. "Gender in the Military." Perspectives: Social Problems. Robert P.
McNamara, Ed. Chicago: Teshigawara/ Panoramic Images, 1999. Pages 208-214.