text: Hooper discusses how military combat has been fundamental to the very composition of masculinity "symbolically, institutionally", and culturally through body shape. Moreover, Hooper discusses how women are seen as life givers, while men are believed to be life takers. As a result, men can only exist as men if they are willing to charge into war, thereby expressing their "enduring 'natural aggression'." Furthermore, this perception also explains the traditional "exclusion of women from combat", while furthering the myth "that military service is the fullest expression of masculinity." This has troubling implications for the continuation of war, and for the enshrinement of masculine norms. Hooper also ideates about the instillation of militarized masculinity in boys, discussing how military service is a "rite of passage" for young men. As such, "war and the military represent one of the major sites where hegemonic masculinities" are formed and enshrined.
  Militarized hegemonic masculinity has also impacted perceptions of citizenship as well as the LGBT community. Conscription is fairly common throughout the world, and has also been utilized in America during key conflicts. The majority of men expect conscription to be the price of adult citizenship, but religious objectors and homosexuals have been largely excluded from this. These restrictions have led to the perceived subordinate status of these groups, and their subsequent exclusion from full citizenship, in the same fashion that women have been excluded. This is reflective of the notion that men unable to, or unwilling to fight for their country are more effeminate, as they are breaking with hegemonic norms. The perceptions that homosexuals are unfit for service, and that women have a responsibility at home, is reflective of the heteronormative nature of the military. The institutional composition of the military, itself, reinforces this hegemony through the armed branch's subordination to a "dominating and organizationally competent" branch. Essentially, there is an armed wing, which is masculinized through conflict, and there is a dominating branch, that is masculinized through power. The hierarchical nature of the military is used to enforce, replicate, and enhance hegemonic masculinity.