ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon the role 'masculinity' plays within the process of infantry. It will depict how masculinity is constructed and perceived by ordinary soldiers. Masculinity in the infantry, as in the general culture, is an occasioned context-dependent construct, for the most part played out in the fashion, but subject to revision when the occasion demands. The task, if survived, constitutes the ultimate rite de passage, the ultimate test of this particular type of masculinity. In addition, the infantry role was explicitly portrayed to recruits as one that demanded heterosexual potency "Real men" chase women, and "real men" should be sexually athletic at every available opportunity. Masculinity in the infantry is both an occasioned construct and a "practical and continuous accomplishment." "Heroic" conduct on operations is then construed as stupid and deviant because it places one's peers in unnecessary jeopardy. Lack of aggression is again correlated with femininity, inadequacy, and, ultimately and quite fundamentally, death.
