The military is a total institution controlling members’ bodies and life choices

Evidence

In part, the pressures spouses face stem from the fact that the military is what sociologists refer to as a “total institution.” Total institutions—like the military, boarding schools, prisons, and asylums—have power over virtually every part of a person’s life. They usually have the power to keep an individual under nearly constant surveillance. They have control over an individual’s body. They have the ability to compel a person to follow orders (and in the military, these orders could result in death). The U.S. military’s power as a total institution has been so far-reaching that soldiers once had to ask permission to marry. Even recently, some have felt compelled to ask permission to get pregnant. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 461

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the concept of a total institution and applies it concretely to the military via examples like permission to marry or become pregnant.
• XREF: Total-institution concept comes from Erving Goffman; connects to broader sociology of coercive organizations.