Women's military service is the focus of an ongoing controversy because of its implications for the gendered nature of citizenship. While liberal feminists endorse equal service as a venue for equal citizenship, radical feminists see women's service as a reification of martial citizenship and cooperation with a hierarchical and sexist institution. These debates, however, tend to ignore the perspective of the women soldiers themselves.This paper seeks to add to the contemporary debate on women's military service the subjective dimension of gender and national identities of women soldiers serving in "masculine" roles. I use a theory of identity practices in order to analyze the interaction between state institutions and identity construction. Based on in-depth interviews, I argue that Israeli women soldiers in "masculine" roles shape their gender identities according to the hegemonic masculinity of the combat soldier through three interrelated practices:(1) mimicry of combat soldiers' bodily and discursive practices; (2) distancing from "traditional femininity"; and (3) trivialization of sexual harassment.These practices signify both resistance and compliance with the military dichotomized gender order. While these transgender performances subvert the hegemonic norms of masculinity and femininity, they also collaborate with the military androcentric norms. Thus, although these women soldiers individually transgress gender boundaries, they internalize the military's masculine ideology and values and learn to identify with the patriarchal order of the army and the state. This accounts for a pattern of "limited inclusion" that reaffirms their marginalization, thus prohibiting them from developing a collective consciousness that would challenge the gendered structure of citizenship. This paper seeks to add to the contemporary debate on women's military service the subjective dimension of gender and national identities of women soldiers serving in "masculine" roles. The ongoing debate regarding women's military service tends to view women soldiers as pawns in a bigger game: the military often regards women soldiers in combat roles as hindering the military gender system and therefore damaging the efficiency of the masculine war machine (Katzenstein 1998; Mitchell 1989, p. 218; Peach 1996, pp. 164-74). Feminist observers, on the other hand, tend to see women soldiers as either serving or harming women's interests as a whole. The most dominant question in this debate is whether military service is a venue for equal citizenship for women or a reinforcement and reification of masculine concepts of martial citizenship. Thus, the contemporary debate on women in the military tends to remain on the macrolevel and ignores the gender experience of women soldiers themselves (for an exception, see Herbert 1998).My paper focuses on the subjective gender experience of women soldiers in "nontraditional" military roles and the meaning of those experiences at both the microlevel of women's lives and the macrolevel of the military and st...

This article examincs thc 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 intervicws 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.This article examines the construction of gendercd identities within the Israeli army and their relation to differential concepts of citizenship. In Israel, hegemonic masculinity is identified with the masculinity of the Jewish combat solider and is perceived as the emblem of good citizenship (Lomsky-Feder and Ben-Ari 1999). 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. I will present this argument through an empirical analysis of two marginalized groups within the Israeli army: male soldiers in blue-collar jobs, who are mostly of lower-class Mizrachil origin, and women soldiers in "masculine" roles, who are mostly of middleclass Ashkenazi2 (European) origin. Both groups, who are marginalized for different "reasons" (one for ethno-class position and the other for gender), are marginalized through the military division ol labor. The comparison between the groups reveals two discernible practices of identity, though both reflect ambivalent positions and attitudes toward the military-state system. Women in "masculine" roles accept the model of the Direct all correspondence to

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.

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This article seeks to contribute to the discourse on the politicization of voluntary simplifiers’ consumption patterns. Some scholars argue that voluntary simplifiers’ consumption practices are individualistic and escapist in nature, and therefore cannot be defined as political, and that they are likely to become such only if they organize for collective action. Conversely, we argue that voluntary simplifiers’ lifestyle is an individual political choice that should be analyzed using theories of political consumption. This article, based on interviews with voluntary simplifiers in Israel, identifies four characteristics of voluntary simplifiers that attest to their political nature: (1) multidimensional political discourse, (2) embracement of a holistic and uncompromising lifestyle of simplicity, (3) lifestyle changes as ongoing political process, and (4) the desire to exert influence. We therefore argue that voluntary simplifiers are not only political, but they represent a clear-cut instance of noninstitutionalized political activity realized through individual practices in the private realm.