Martha Stout, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” pp. 420–37; Leslie Bell’s “Selections from Hard to Get,” 25–44 ; and
Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel,” 73–103.

Question Prompt for Paper 3
Using close-reading techniques and drawing evidence from key points in the three texts, write an essay that responds to the question in bold.
Stout and Bell show how people can act against their own efforts at creating a happier, fuller experience of life. They examine why our conscious and unconscious ways of protecting ourselves can have unintended negative effects. Faludi focuses on how the “group mentality” at the Citadel has differing effects (Faludi 81). It allows for the expression of vulnerability and affection, and it forms sadistic responses to those simple human needs. It does this to produce the “Citadel man” (82). At the end of her article, Faludi offers “play,” “spontaneity,” “illusion,” and “goof” (102) as ways to care for yourself and others in a balanced way.
How can engaging in play repair these unintended consequences, and how can these forms of make-believe create new modes of caring in the world?
Note: You must respond to each of the two parts of this prompt. The second part asks you to use the ideas in your essay in devising a plan of action in the world.
Food for Thought
The following questions may help you imagine different approaches to this main question in bold. They are intended only to help you develop your argument. Please don’t try to respond to them all in your paper.
Which identity are you going to look at: gender identity, sexual identity, class identity, racial or ethnic identity? Why? How does this identity interact with other identities?
According to Stout, why do people undermine their own capacity to reach their goals? According to Bell, why do women undermine their own capacity to reach their goals?
According to Faludi, how can membership in a group restrict your capacity to reach your individual goals? How can such membership expand your capacity to reach your goals?
How does group mentality (Faludi) contribute to the problems Bell describes? How does play function in Stout? How does play function in Bell?
Would play function differently for women than for men? Does it function differently in private than it does in public situations? Why?
Faludi’s insight about play points to an unequal distribution in opportunities to play in U.S. society. If she’s right about play, how does this unequal distribution change your ideas about repairing the backfiring of self-defenses? Does the unequal distribution affect other groups, such as race groups or class groups? What does her insight tell us about Faludi’s style of feminism? How can you question Faludi’s insight about the unequal distribution in opportunities to play for men and women? If she’s not right on this point, show how she’s not right. Show the how this error plays out. What are the implications of an error like this?
Can play serve as a defense like dissociation or splitting?
2
Do defenses cause us to fool ourselves? Why and how? How does play differ from self- deception?
How does our capacity for self-deception make us suffer? Or soothe our suffering? What kinds of positive emotion is self-deception associated with? Can self-deception be creative?