War has been a mainstay of human civilization since its inception thousands of years ago, and throughout this long and colorful history, warriors have been almost exclusively male. By repeatedly assuming the fundamentally aggressive and violent role of the soldier, Man has slowly come to define himself through these violent experiences. Although modern American society regulates the experiences associated with engaging in war to a select group of individuals, leaving the majority of the American public emotionally and personally distant from war, traditional American masculinity still draws heavily on the distinctively masculine experience of going to war. war. In modern American society, masculinity is still defined and expressed through analogy with the behaviors and experiences of men at war; however, such simplistic masculinity cannot explain the depth of human experience embraced by a modern man. Whether engaging in European trench warfare or fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, a soldier must learn to cope with the incredible mental stress caused by the ever-present threat of a horrible death. The physical stress introduced by poor nutrition, a harsh and hostile environment, and the cumulative physical effect of emotional trauma only serves to make a difficult situation even more taxing. It is from this violently stressful environment that the coping mechanisms that characterize wartime masculinity arise. A natural response to such a violent environment is to simply behave in a way that does not demonstrate any weakness. If the soldier shows no signs of weakness, he will find it much easier to convince himself that he can survive on his own strength. In asserting his control over himself while hiding all his weaknesses, h...... middle of paper ......y and war still abound; however, these analogies cannot capture the full masculinity of modern man as they do not allow for the formation of intimate personal relationships, such as that between husband and wife, which are at the heart of ordinary civil life. Works Cited Kriegel, Leonard. "Take it." Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Ed. Estelle Disch. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. 194-196. Messner, Michael A. “Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction ofMasculinities.” Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Ed. Estelle Disch. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. 120-137. O'Brien, Tim. The things they carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990. Petrie, Phil W. "Real Men Don't Cry... and Other 'Uncool' Myths." Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Ed. Estelle Disch. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. 221-226.