Avoiding Military Service in a Militaristic Society: A Chronicle of Resistance to Hegemonic Masculinity

Abstract

This article examines the connection between masculine identity and avoidance of military service in a militaristic society. Based on retrospective interviews with Israeli middle‐class men who initiated their release from military service on medical–psychological grounds, we argue that this choice embodies resistance to patterns identified with the local hegemonic masculinity and that this resistance gradually intensifies over the life course. The first signs of opposition emerge in early adolescence, when the perception of self diverges from the conventional masculine mold. The emotionally charged encounter with the military deepens this resistance, which is then reinforced by the decision not to serve, and ultimately leads to the construction of the present nonconformist identity. The development of a nonconformist self that is not subject to the dictates of the local hegemonic masculinity demonstrates how in a militaristic society, even a personal decision not to serve becomes an act rife with gendered meanings and political significance.

The gender-related experience of frontline Israeli male social workers

“…They described the substantial emotional price they had to pay for attempting to live up to widely accepted hegemonic expectation of masculinity, which has deep roots in Israeli society. The prototypical Jewish Israeli male is characterized by physical strength and powerful masculine physique (Davison, 2010;Perez & Sasson-Levy, 2015;Sion & Ben Arie, 2009). Connell (2005) described how masculine gender identity is socially constructed, and how, because of its essential fluidity, it may transform according to dominant social and ideological perspectives.…”

“…Many men feel comfortable with their masculine identities despite their inability to conform to an authoritative, powerful ideal. Yet in Israeli society the hegemonic expectation of masculinity and the fact that the ideal male is characterized by physical strength and a powerful masculine physique was found to affect male identity (Davison, 2010;Perez & Sasson-Levy, 2015;Sion & Ben Arie, 2009).…”

Soldiers and Scholars: Ritual Dilemmas among National Religious Combat Soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces

“…Anthropologists have long noted the hegemonic masculine nature of IDF service (Lomsky-Feder and Rapaport 2003; Sasson-Levy. 2008; Perez and Sasson-Levy 2015) and have observed how masculinity and “manhood” have often been “equated to warriorhood” (Kaplan and Ben-Ari 2000, 402; Gill 1997; Arkin and Dobrofsky 1978). Little has been written, however, on the local ways in which political piety interacts with notions of masculinity and warriorhood.…”

“…Ben-Ari and Sion (2005) have viewed the bawdy social atmosphere of the military as a site for the cultivation of masculinities in all-male environments. While this is certainly true, for national religious combat soldiers, the bawdy social atmosphere complicates traditional understandings of “hegemonic masculinities” in military contexts (Perez and Sasson-Levy 2015, 464; Connell 1995; Hinojosa 2010). For national religious combat soldiers, misogynistic songs contrast with their own individual pious self-understandings.…”

Upgraded Masculinity: A Gendered Analysis of the Debriefing in the Israeli Air Force

“…Even in Israel's militaristic context, softer forms of masculinities are emerging. For example, Perez and Sasson-Levy (2014), studying men who avoid conscription, show the emergence of a new antihegemonic masculinity displayed through antiheroic traits perceived to be opposed to masculine ideals (e.g., sensitivity, vulnerability, and distancing from heroism). Sasson-Levy and Amram-Katz (2007), researching the integration of an officers' course, showed how men used a variety of approaches-such as gendered allocation of duties or gendered evaluation of performance-to reassert and regender their dominance.…”