New Flash: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03military.html?scp=5&sq=don't%20ask%20don't%20tell&st=cse

Although the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy may seem archaic, it was passed by Congress a mere sixteen years ago. The policy is intended to allow homosexual men and women to participate in the armed forces as long as they keep their homosexual identity a secret. However, keeping ones sexuality a secret does not simply mean that one’s fellow soldiers know he or she is gay, but it is not spoken of, as I originally was lead to believe. Rather, that statue states that a member of the armed forces will be discharged if they engage or intend to engage in homosexual acts, have stated he or she is a homosexual, or has married or attempted to marry a member of the same sex. The only legitimization specifically stated for this practice in the law is that it prohibition of homosexuals has been a long-standing military tradition. Tradition is not a legitimate reason to keep laws in place and promote segregation of the “other.” If tradition were enough slavery would still exist and the feminist’s movement would never have occurred. Thus, an important step was taken by President Obama in his state of the union address urging Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This step has been further embraced by top defense officials as outlined in Elisabeth Bumiller’s article, “Top Defense Officials Seek to End, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” The actions of both President Obama and the top defense officials have the ability to challenge the traditional system of patriarchy that rules our society.

The patriarchy is the heterosexual male dominated system that emphasizes the difference between men and women and shapes our lives. The patriarchy can be seen as a type of hegemony. Straight white men are the group in domination, but it is accepted and participated in by all “others,” gay, or black, or women. The men in power make all of their beliefs seem natural and right creating a self-perpetuating system that is rarely questioned. However, the repulsion of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has the ability to question what is normal in patriarchy. The people clearly agree with the repulsion as, “polls now show that a majority of Americans support openly gay service” (Bumiller, 3). Even top defense officials who run the system have been quoted supporting the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:

“No Matter how I look at the at issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,’ Adm. Mike Mullen the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. As a murmur swept through a hearing room packed with gay rights leaders, Admiral Mullen said it was his personal belief that, ‘allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do” (Bumiller, 1).

Thus, with the possibility of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” the rules of the patriarchy are no longer accepted in an unquestioning manner. Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will help to break down patriarchy the same way the end of slavery and the right women to vote did. It will become increasingly clear that the patriarchy is just a social construction, not the “right way.”

It is clear that patriarchy as a whole will be questioned by the repulsion of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as the beliefs of the system are proven not always to be correct. In order to understand why a law like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” exists in the first place it is crucial to understand how the system works. The system is heteronormative, that is to say that straight men are the norm. Anything else that deviates from the norm is outside of the norm, or the “other.” The “other” could be a woman, a lesbian, or a gay man. The patriarchy attributes positive qualities to the norm such as responsible and more negative characteristics to the “other” such as emotional. Thus, the norm is where the value lies. Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will cause it to become more apparent that these associated characteristics hold little value. Homosexual men have been serving secretly in the military all of these years and have embodied all of the positive qualities associated with the norm, a straight male. It has not been obvious who the homosexual soldiers are and they have been seen as complete equals. Admiral Mullen brought this point home when he said, “’I have served with homosexuals since 1968’… He added, ‘Everybody in the military has, and we understand that’” (Bumiller, 3). Since these men have been serving secretly in the military they have proved that the negative attributes associated with gay men are simply social constructions. Any man regardless of sexual orientation can embrace any qualities and can rise above the constraints placed upon us all. Homosexuals in the military have broken some of the barriers of oppression, by proving they are simply social constructions that do not exist if the rest of the world is unaware you are an “other.”

While it is clear the repulsion of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will not end oppression against homosexuals entirely, I believe it will aid in the acceptance of the “other.” This proves Frye’s theory likening oppression to a birdcage to have some flaws. Frye states, “it is only when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you can see why the bird does not go anywhere; and then you will see it in a moment” (Frye, 3). However, in the instance of the repulsion of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (one wire) appears to have the ability to aid the removal of the rest of the wires. This is not to say that one should only look myopically to end oppression, on the contrary the combined focus on the individual (micro) and the system (macro) appears to be the key. This is illustrated especially well by Johnson who sees both the individual and the system to blame for patriarchy requiring both to enact change. Johnson’s suggests the individual can start to change the patriarchy. “When a man objects to a sexist joke, for example, it can shake other men’s perceptions of what’s socially acceptable and what’s not” (Johnson, 33). Thus, in this instance both the opinion of President Obama and top defense officials have the ability to create change and alter the patriarchy.

To reiterate, President Obama and the United States’ top defense officials have the ability to challenge the social constructions created by patriarchy with the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The deeply ingrained beliefs, symbols and ideas about men, women and sexuality that permeate our culture will be have to be restructured as people will no longer blindly accept patriarchic structure. The difference between men and the “other” will be blurred being able to embrace any qualities they wish as equal members of the armed forces. It is important to note that all of this will occur by changing both our individual views as well as the institutions that run our country. This action will not unwind patriarchy entirely, but like the abolitionist movement and the feminist movement it is an important step in the right direction.