ABSTRACT

Stanley Kubrick’s movie, Full Metal Jacket, describes how in basic training soldiers are trained to be killers. Symbolically, all men wear rigid jackets which restrict their movements. As boys, they go through a similar kind of basic training into the rigors of masculinity. Without going to a specific camp, each boy has to discover how to provide for himself, how to achieve security, and how to interpret his world with a masculine schema. In modern technological societies men on their own without any recognized rites receive uniforms woven by cultural messages and the special attention they receive because of their male features. Like suits of armor, these uniforms provide a coat to protect the little boy within from a mean male world. These jackets also project an exterior that broadcasts what type of mannikin lives inside. Puppets pulled by gender-role norms, men are conditioned to wage war, support families, fight battles, coach teams, ignore sickness, hunt animals, play sports, camp in the woods, create problems, solve problems, build temples, join the Boy Scouts, despoil the environment, climb mountains, deny feelings, minister to the sick, and write books. Some men, wolves in sheep’s clothing, do not understand why they act in destructive ways.