o effect on the school’s purpose. The fear and extreme anxiety of the cadets to keep the hidden discourse unexposed can be seen in their excuses and actions against the admission of females. The students of the Citadel will do anything to preserve their hidden transcript.The closeness of their living quarters and the amount of time spent with each other result in family like relationships. Faludi recorded a discussion of cadets on the “family style” of the school. The unanimous feeling is that in these circumstances, men can show more affection towards each other when women are not around. Their masculinity does not have to constantly be proved. In this hidden transcript, the cadets are free to behave in whichever way they wish. “What was going on here was play—a kind of freedom and spontaneity that, in this culture, only women are permitted” (302). Behavior that usually would seem unacceptable of men is tolerable within the walls of the Citadel. Certain things are no longer considered a taboo. In Faludi’s essay, one cadet gives an example of this in describing the cadet’s bathing practices.The men bathe as a group. They walk to the shower down the open galleries in “nothing but our bathrobes” or even “without any clothes.” Another cadet said, “I know it sounds trivial, but all of us in one shower, its like we’re all one, we’re all the same, and—I don’t know—you feel like you’re exposed, but you feel safe. You know these guys are going to be your friends for life” (275).Another cadet went into further detail on this topic:“When we are in the showers, it’s very intimate,” a senior cadet said. “We’re one mass, naked together, and it makes us closer…You’re shaved, you’re naked, you’re afraid together. You can cry” (297).In this example, we see that t...
