THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180629
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN G. SJOERDSMA
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
It was too much to expect that, after more than two years of ugly court battles to gain admission to male-only The Citadel, first female cadet Shannon Faulkner would report to the South Carolina military college trim and in shape.
It was too much to expect that during her first days at this 152-year-old bastion of male power, when the eyes of the nation were upon her, Faulkner would be in a physical condition to keep up with the ``boys.''
Had I been Faulkner, I would have trained daily in a gym, hit the track running, and sculpted a body and mind to rival Linda Hamilton's in ``Terminator 2.''
But Faulkner never really wanted an education at The Citadel. Instead, she just didn't want to be denied. And now she has called it quits, withdrawing from the school Friday , citing ``emotional'' reasons.
I respect her decision, but it has come much too late.
Faulkner reported for duty at The Citadel overweight and unfit, and succumbed to the 100-degree heat at the start of ``hell week,'' the college's notorious leadership ``training by stress,'' thus creating hell and stress for women everywhere. I'm still cringing.
True, five male cadets - out of 590 - also suffered heat exhaustion during a rigorous march last Monday, but none of them made the news for being in an infirmary ``under a doctor's care.'' And none of them really mattered. They could afford to be mediocre; Shannon Faulkner, a pioneering symbol of female progress could not. She apparently never understood this.
Described last September in a New Yorker expose of The Citadel by author Susan Faludi (``Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women``) as a tough ``individualist'' and an ``unlikely feminist poster-girl,'' Faulkner always seemed more intent on crashing The Citadel's stag party because it refused her entry than because she wanted to attend.
``Amazement'' and ``indignation,'' said Faludi, motivated this fighter, not a burning desire to be a Citadel graduate. Faulkner aspires to be a teacher or journalist and has always been ambivalent about a military stint. Her scrappy, working-class motto: ``If you want something, go for it.''
But not without realizing the consequences for, and beyond, herself. This simply was not Faulkner's fight to wage.
Fair or not, Faulkner could not stand as an individual; she represented a future of greater opportunity for all women, not just for herself. Similar to Rosa Parks, an unlikely symbol for the civil rights movement, she created a ripple, the effect of which she - as Parks did - should have recognized.
A generation older than the 20-year-old Faulkner, I well remember the absurd arguments that defeated passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 1980s, chief among them unisex bathrooms and military scares. Contrary to opponents' claims, Congress does not need an ERA to draft women into military service; it could do so tomorrow, if it chose. Women participate now in ``combat,'' in varying roles, and always have.
Would that Faulkner, who has greatly benefited from, but remains ignorant of, feminism - she didn't recognize Gloria Steinem's name when Faludi mentioned it - had shown some appreciation for women's military history, or at least for U.S. constitutional doctrine, of which her on-going sex-discrimination case was a part.
In succumbing to both physical and emotional rigor Faulkner handed failure to those who predicted it; she tripped the one ``wire'' that she could not trip, a wire that only increased stamina and upper-body strength, not intellectual capacity, could sidestep.
Whether we like it or not, Faulkner's performance implicated all women in a double-standard fiasco. Sex-discriminatory state-supported institutions like The Citadel take generations to topple, and Faulkner was just the first generation, the test case. Women who come later, such as the women who succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Janet Reno, always have an easier time. They may even have the luxury of passing out in the heat.
Sorry, Shannon, you couldn't just play flute in the band. But maybe your granddaughter will be able to, someday. MEMO: Ann G. Sjoerdsma is a lawyer and book editor for The Virginian-Pilot. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Shannon Faulkner
by CNB