ABSTRACT

This chapter describes one prominent mechanism, normative alignment that has played a role in hiding shameful aspects of service members' conduct in plain sight. While this brief meditation is about public delusion concerning the modern American military that might be relevant for scholars analyzing myths about military organizations in other geographical settings and historical eras. When American civilians think about the armed forces, typically they may imagine cool fighter planes, masculine warriors, polished uniforms and well-spoken generals and admirals. The behavior of military personnel must be understood in context, as shameful conduct does not occur in a vacuum. Mocking the sexual orientation of effeminate men or butch women reflects the heteronormative assumption that when an individual's display of gender is seen as inconsistent with their biologically defined sex, this must have implications for their sexual orientation as well. Heteronormativity is a variant of normative alignment, and it has, of course, unraveled somewhat in recent years.