Masculinity/ies

Citation:

Higate, Paul, and Marsha Henry. 2004. “Engendering (In)security in Peace Support Operations.” Security Dialogue 35 (4): 481–98.

Authors: Paul Higate , Marsha Henry

Abstract:

This article contributes towards ongoing debates on gender, security, and post-conflict studies. Its focus is on the activities of male peacekeepers and their gendered relations with women and girls. Against the backdrop of the peacekeeping economies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, we focus on the consequences of male peacekeepers' construction and enactment of masculinity (and masculinities) on the security of local women. We conclude by suggesting that a deeper understanding of gender relations and security in peacekeeping contacts is necessary for any policy intervention in post-conflict settings. 

Keywords: security, insecurity, Gender, peacekeeping, masculinity, femininity, militarization, sexuality

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Girls, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Conflict, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Security, Male Perpetrators Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone

Year: 2004

Citation:

Higate, Paul. 2007. “Peacekeepers, Masculinities, and Sexual Exploitation.” Men and Masculinities 10 (1): 99–119. doi:10.1177/1097184X06291896.

Author: Paul Higate

Abstract:

My aim in this article is to analyze a set of gendered power relations played out in two postconflict settings. Based on interviews with peacekeepers and others, I argue that sexual exploitation of local women by male peacekeepers continues to be documented. I then turn to scholarly considerations of peacekeeper sexual exploitation, some of which accord excessive explanatory power to a crude form of military masculinity. This is underlined by similarly exploitative activities perpetrated by humanitarian workers and so-called "sex tourists." In conclusion, I argue that a form of exploitative social masculinities shaped by socioeconomic structure, impunity, and privilege offers a more appropriate way to capture the activities of some male peacekeepers during peacekeeping missions. Finally, in underlining the conflation of military masculinities with exploitation, I pose the question of how to explain those military men who do not exploit local women while deployed on missions.

Keywords: gendered power relations, male peacekeepers, military masculinities, exploitative social masculinities

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Humanitarian Assistance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone

Year: 2007

Citation:

Higate, Paul. 2009. “Putting ‘Mercenary Masculinities’ on the Research Agenda.” SPAIS Working Paper 03-09, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

Author: Paul Higate

Abstract:

Private Military Security Companies (PMSC) have come increasingly to supplant the activities of regular, national militaries - most notably in such contexts as Iraq and Afghanistan. Though a wide scholarship has addressed questions of legitimacy, regulation and control of PMSCs, critical commentators on gender have almost entirely overlooked the masculinised cultures of these private firms, the majority of which employ former military personnel. This is surprising since masculine norms, values and cultures shape private contractors security practices and can be used to explain human rights abuses, as well as the everyday ways in which these men imagine security. In these terms, the key critical issue concerns what is missed when masculinity is ignored in analyses of PMSCs, a question that is taken up in this working paper within the context of a potential research agenda for this topic of research.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Violence, Weapons /Arms

Year: 2009

Citation:

Myrttinen, Henri. 2010. Poster Boys No More: Gender and Security Sector Reform in Timor-Leste. 31. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). 

Author: Henri Myrttinen

Abstract:

Gender analysis of actual SSR processes is sorely lacking in the SSR literature. In ‘Poster Boys No More: Gender and Security Sector Reform in Timor-Leste’ Henri Myrttinen breaks new ground in examining the gender dimensions of the DDR and SSR processes in Timor-Leste, with a focus on the establishment of the police and armed forces. The paper explores issues such as: how men’s roles relate to gang violence and relationships of patronage that undermine the security services, how women have been incorporated into the new security services and how the security services are addressing gender-based violence. It shows how a gender perspective can add to our understanding of many of the social processes at work in Timor-Leste and help to find solutions to some of the main security issues in the country, making recommendations for Timor-Leste’s ongoing SSR processes. (The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)).

Topics: DDR, Gender, Women, Men, Girls, Boys, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Security Sector Reform Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2010

Citation:

Harrington, Carol. 2003. “Peacekeeping and Prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.” Paper presented at the 5th European Feminist Research Conference, Lund, August 20-23.

Author: Carol Harrington

Abstract:

This paper compares the organisation of sexual violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo during UN operations to the sexual violence associated with US military bases in the Republic of Korea (ROK) during the 1970s, while also drawing some comparisons with the way sexual violence was organised in wartime Yugoslavia. I argue that in all of these cases military men agree that soldiers are entitled to heterosexual encounters, and thus provide women for soldiers to have sex with, treating the women concerned as people whose well- being, dignity and bodily integrity is of no relevance at all. Such sexual violence appears to be institutionalised across contemporary militaries. However, the political logic that categorises women as people to be protected or as people who have no rights to bodily integrity differs across sites. My enquiry is based in a sociology of the body that treats sexual violence as political violence, thus I expect that the sexual categorisation and organisation of women for soldiers will reveal important aspects of the political order the militaries involved are defending. I will elaborate on this theoretical perspective in relation to the three cases in the course of my discussion. Through comparing these three military contexts I seek to understand how military thinkers in the case of Bosnia and Kosovo divided people in relation to physical security and rights to bodily integrity, and thus to uncover the logic of the political order these peacekeeping operations defended. (Intro)

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2003

Citation:

Hagemann, Karen. 1997. “Of ‘Manly Valor’ and ‘German Honor’: Nation War and Masculinity in the Age of the Prussian Uprising Against Napoleon.” Central European History 30 (2): 187–220.

Author: Karen Hagemann

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Nationalism, Violence Regions: Europe, Central Europe Countries: France, Germany

Year: 1997

Citation:

Gray, Chris Hables. 2003. “Posthuman Soldiers in Postmodern War.” Body & Society 9 (4): 215–26. doi:10.1177/135703403773684739.

Author: Chris Hables Gray

Abstract:

The centrality of human-machine weapon systems is a key aspect of postmodern war. Since 1939 such systems have proliferated while improved interfaces have led to several types of actual cyborg soldiers. As the crisis of postmodern war deepens it is producing a series of quite different militarized bodies. Cyborgs proliferate in type so it is no surprise that we have pilot-cyborgs and tele-operators, info-cyborgs (from political operatives to clerks and including all the servants of the computers and weapons systems), and various fighting cyborg soldiers and sailors. There has also been a resurgence of a type of irregular warrior that many commentators describe as bestial. It is not a coincidence that while humanity is on the verge of producing real posthumans (quite possibly for military applications) so-called “prehuman” types of war have broken out across the globe. War is based on bodies and its skewed logics have driven many cyborgian developments. Now, both war and our cyborg society are involved in a linked crisis fueled by the relentless march of technoscience that has made modern war impossible and posthumans probable. The future of the human, and of a multitude of potential posthumanities, will largely be determined by how this crisis is resolved.

Topics: Armed Conflict, "New Wars", Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Violence, Weapons /Arms

Year: 2003

Citation:

Given, Emel Linda, 2010. “Man, Woman or Just Human: How Do Gender Roles Influence Sexual Violence Against Males in Armed Conflict?” BSIS Journal of International Studies 7: online.

Author: Emel Linda Given

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Violence

Year: 2010

Citation:

Gagnon, Jeffrey. 2003. “Men O’ War: Examining the Role of Masculine Social Construction as an Obstacle to Peace.”

Author: Jeffrey Gagnon

Abstract:

This analysis concentrates on the differences between warlike and peaceful relationships as perceived through the lens of masculine social construction. Patriarchy’s influence on the values, attitudes and constructs of masculine identity development directs this investigation, as masculine ideology determines how two sides understand the reasons for and solutions to relational conflict. This analysis contends that traditional masculine ideology, while not the sole cause of war, can often initiate and justify intergroup conflict, while obstructing opportunities for peace. As such, this inquiry seeks to answer two central questions: How does masculine socialization mobilize men to war against one another? How does traditional masculine ideology initiate warlike relationships, while impeding peaceful connections? (Intro)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy

Year: 2003

Citation:

Steinert, Heinz. 2003. “The Indispensable Metaphor of War: On Populist Politics and the Contradictions of the State’s Monopoly of Force.” Theoretical Criminology 7 (3): 265–91.

Author: Heinz Steinert

Abstract:

The hegemonic use of the war metaphor, especially in the field of `crime and punishment', is explained by its usefulness for the `populist structure' of politics. Warfare, punishment and policing are three different forms of the state monopoly of force with different logics and restrictions. The universalization of the experience of war is examined historically. Military basic training is a training in helplessness and authoritarianism. The `process of civilization' has led to war as mass destruction of population and infrastructure in the 20th century. In the populist appeal, value orientations such as `(patriarchal) family/community' and `warrior/masculinity' are mobilized. Populist politics connects these social values to `warfare' as well as to `crime and punishment'.

Keywords: army basic training, military history, policing, populist politics, war metaphor

Topics: Armed Conflict, Citizenship, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Militarization

Year: 2003