Militarism

Citation:

Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2001. “Gender Performance in a Changing Military: Women Soldiers in ‘Masculine’ Roles.” Israel Studies Forum 17 (1): 7-22.

Author: Orna Sasson-Levy

Topics: Armed Conflict, Citizenship, Combatants, Female Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Nationalism, Weapons /Arms Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2001

Citation:

Sjoberg, Laura. 2014. “Intimacy, Warfare, and Gender Hierarchy.” Political Geography 44: 74-6. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2014.09.008.

Author: Laura Sjoberg

Keywords: Gender, war, militarism, hierarchy, global politics, feminist geography

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Sexuality

Year: 2014

Citation:

Vettel-Becker, Patricia. 2002. “Destruction and Delight: World War II Combat Photography and the Aesthetic Inscription of Masculine Identity.” Men and Masculinities 5 (1): 80–102.

Author: Patricia Vettel-Becker

Abstract:

During World War II, the American public was inundated with photographs of war. This article examines the iconography of war as revealed in photographs from the Pacific arena, identifying four primary motifs: the transformation of boys into warrior men, the fetishization of weaponry, the spectacle of death, and the quest to penetrate and dominate nature. War is a territorial game played by men to enact dominance, a social performance that inscribes gender identities on human bodies. War, like masculinity, is predicated on the subjugation of the feminine, which is encoded in the body and territory of the enemy, an inscription even more extreme when the enemy is of another race. These photographs enact the play of domination and subjugation through the imagery of impenetrability and rapability, thus contributing to the propagandistic construction of the enemy and extending the voyeuristic pleasures of domination to those not able to experience it firsthand.

Keywords: masculinity, combat photography, World War II, Edward Steichen, violence, atomic bomb

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, Weapons /Arms Regions: Americas, North America, Asia Countries: United States of America

Year: 2002

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

Citation:

Sasson-Levy, Orna, and Sarit Amram-Katz. 2007. “Gender Integration in Israeli Officer Training: Degendering and Regendering the Military.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33 (1): 105–33.

Authors: Orna Sasson‐Levy, Sarit Amram‐Katz

Abstract:

This article examines the nature and meaning of gender integration in an officer training course in the Israeli military, in light of the hegemonic status of combat masculinity. The above quote is taken from an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Yoav Golan, a male battalion commander in the newly gender‐integrated course. The quote starts by recognizing gender differences as legitimate: women’s crying no longer frightens him. However, in the same breath, Yoav recreates the gendered hierarchy: the women’s crying bothers the male cadets, and “legitimate” tears quickly turn into hysterics. This discursive multiplicity is indicative of the simultaneous degendering and regendering processes that take place in the course. Though the Israeli military has restructured officer training in order to degender its route for promotion, it nonetheless goes on to reconstruct and reify hierarchical gender differences. Since military service is a sine qua non of full citizenship in Israel, the simultaneous processes of degendering and regendering expose the countless barricades that Israeli women have to overcome in order to be considered full citizens.

Topics: Citizenship, Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Militarization, Rights Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2007

Citation:

Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2002. “Constructing Identities at the Margins: Masculinities and Citizenship in the Israeli Army.” The Sociological Quarterly 43 (3): 357–83.

Author: Orna Sasson-Levy

Abstract:

This article examines the construction of multiple gendered and national identities in the Israeli army. In Israel, hegemonic masculinity is identified with the masculinity of the Jewish combat soldier and is perceived as the emblem of good citizenship. This identity. I argue, assumes a central role in shaping a hierarchal order of gendered and civic identities that reflects and reproduces social stratification and reconstructs differential modes of participation in, and belonging to, the Israeli state. In-depth interviews with two marginalized groups in the Israeli army—women in “masculine” roles and male soldiers in blue-collar jobs—suggest two discernible practices of identity. While women in “masculine” roles structure their gender and national identities according to the masculinity of the combat soldier, the identity practices of male soldiers in blue-collar jobs challenge this hegemonic masculinity and its close link with citizenship in Israel. However, while both identity practices are empowering for the groups in question, neither undermines the hegemonic order, for the military's practice of “limited inclusion” prohibits the development of a collective consciousness that would challenge the differentiated structure of citizenship.

Topics: Citizenship, Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Militarization Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2002

Citation:

Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2007. “Individual Bodies, Collective State Interests: The Case of Israeli Combat Soldiers.” Men and Masculinities 10 (3): 296–321.

Author: Orna Sasson-Levy

Abstract:

The primary question this article raises is how democratic societies, whose liberal values seem to contradict the coercive values of the military, persuade men to enlist and participate in fighting. The author argues that part of the answer lies in alternative interpretation of transformative bodily and emotional practices. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Israeli combat soldiers, the author claims that the warrior's bodily and emotional practices are constituted through two opposing discursive regimes: self-control and thrill. The nexus of these two themes promotes an individualized interpretation frame of militarized practices, which blurs the boundaries between choice and coercion, presents mandatory military service as a fulfilling self-actualization, and enables soldiers to ignore the political and moral meanings of their actions. Thus, the individualized body and emotion management of the combat soldier serves the symbolic and pragmatic interests of the state, as it reinforces the cooperation between hegemonic masculinity and Israeli militarism.

Keywords: hegemonic masculinity, body and emotion management, military, combat soldiers, individualism, collectivism, Israeli society

Topics: Citizenship, Combatants, Male Combatants, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2007

Citation:

Chenoy, Anuradha. 2004. "Gender and International Politics: The Intersections of Patriarchy and Militarisation." Indian Journal of Gender Studies 11 (1): 27-42.

Author: Anuradha Chenoy

Abstract:

The policies of globalisation and militarisation are lending a muscular discourse to international politics, which provide continuity to the principle of patriarchy and privilege, especially during times of threat and conflict. This kind of politics has a structural impact on society because it endorses traditional gender roles and places people in binary categories like 'with us' or 'against us', 'civilised' and 'uncivilised', 'warriors' or 'wimps'. The militarist discourse marginalises opposition, diversity and difference, and with this the value of force as part of power is privileged, and militant nationalism exaggerated. Each local culture has its variant of the muscular discourse. As women try and increase their agency, the perception is that when women accept militarist notions of power it is easier for them to become part of national security and state institutions. This is a major challenge to feminist culture and thinking.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Globalization, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Militarization, Nationalism, Security

Year: 2004

Citation:

Koeszegi, Sabine T., Eva Zedlacher, and Rene Hudribusch. 2013. “The War Against the Female Soldier? The Effects of Masculine Culture on Workplace Aggression.” Armed Forces & Society 40 (February): 226-250.

Authors: Sabine T. Koeszegi, Eva Zedlacher, Rene Hudribusch

Abstract:

This study intends to analyze the relationship between military culture, masculine norms, attitude toward women, and workplace aggression. By using a paper-pencil survey in the Austrian Armed Forces, we show that overall 6.5 percent of all soldiers in the sample suffer from severe, long-term collective aggression (bullying). The detailed analysis suggests that systematic workplace aggression is associated with a culture with high power orientation and adherence to traditional (masculine) military norms. It occurs most often within socialization processes in training centers as well as in combat units. Conversely, culture in support units has high levels of task orientation with a comparably positive attitude toward female soldiers and less reported workplace aggression. The data reveal the gender dimension of workplace aggression in the Austrian Armed Forces: women are significantly more vulnerable to bullying. Almost every second soldier declares to have observed and every tenth soldier admits to have conducted aggressive acts against women.

Keywords: hypermasculinity, culture, workplace aggression, integration, military

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Austria

Year: 2013

Citation:

Caprioli, Mary. 2000. “Gendered Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 37 (1): 51–68. doi:10.2307/425725.

Author: Mary Caprioli

Abstract:

This study quantitatively tests the relationship between state militarism and domestic gender equality. International relations literature on the impact and potential impact of women on foreign policy suggests that women are more peaceful in that they are less likely than men to support the use of international violence. Other research indicates that a domestic environment of inequality results in state militarism on the international level. Both lines of inquiry suggest that a domestic environment of equality between women and men would lead toward greater state pacifism, and four hypotheses are developed to test this relationship. The Militarized Interstate Dispute dataset is used with hostility level as the dependent variable to measure the level of militarism employed by any given state to resolve international conflicts. Independent variables for gender equality include percent women in parliament, duration of female suffrage, percent women in the labor force, and fertility rate. Several control variables (alliances, contiguity, wealth, and democracy) are added to the multivariate logistic regressions, and all four hypotheses are confirmed. This study substantiates the theory that domestic gender equality has a pacifying effect on state behavior on the international level.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Political Economies

Year: 2000