Gender and militaries: the importance of military masculinities for the conduct of state sanctioned violence

Basham, Victoria M.

doi:10.4337/9781849808927.00009

Cited by 18 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The aggressive and violent expressions of masculinity that may lead to violence within the home are also affected by, and can contribute to, armed conflict. For one, militaries themselves are organized to promote forms of masculinity that are advantageous for warfare, such as the use of aggression and promoting physical violence (Basham, 2016). These institutions valorize forms of militarized masculinities that are often supported by both men and women in the community (Enloe 2006).…”

Section: Armed Conflict and Hegemonic Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing Lifetime Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Ever-Partnered Men in South Sudan

Khalaf

Contreras-Urbina

Murphy

et al. 2022

Men and Masculinities

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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Research has shown that gender inequitable attitudes, economic stressors, and armed conflict are among the many risk factors for IPV. Armed conflict can leave women and girls even more vulnerable to gender-based violence and create a context in which hegemonic masculinity may escalate different forms of VAWG. In South Sudan, a country that has been affected by continued armed conflicts, more than half of ever-partnered women and girls have reported experiencing physical or sexual IPV. This study reports on two population-based surveys targeting women and men in South Sudan. Logistic regression analyses were conducted using a sub-sample of ever-partnered men in South Sudan to examine the effect of several predictors on lifetime perpetration of IPV. Findings show a number of factors that were associated with increased odds of ever perpetrating IPV including perpetrating non-partner sexual violence, exposure to non-partner physical violence, and the number of controlling behaviors perpetrated against women partners. These findings suggest that perpetration of IPV is linked to gender inequality and exposure to and normalization of violence. Overall, this research contributes to our in-depth understanding of how experiences of armed conflict may contribute to perpetration of VAWG.

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Section: Armed Conflict and Hegemonic Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing Lifetime Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Ever-Partnered Men in South Sudan

Khalaf

Contreras-Urbina

Murphy

et al. 2022

Men and Masculinities

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“…Second, expanding scholarship on women's accession to combat positions across Western militaries in the 2000s problematized the contradictory conditions of inclusion and (in)visibility of women soldiers. Whereas some scholars have highlighted widening opportunities for women through concepts such as "gender equivalency" (Brownson 2014) and "regendering" (Duncanson and Woodward 2016), others have pointed out that the increasing visibility of uniformed female-identified bodies has yet to lead to productive visions of militarized femininities, with women often framed as "ambivalent" bodies, "incomplete" soldier "tomboys," desexualized "honorary men," and/or "sluts and bitches," all of which, to various extents, sustain the dominance of male heteronormative soldiering (Basham 2009(Basham , 2013(Basham , 2016Belkin 2013;Brownfield-Stein 2017;Crowley and Sandhoff 2017;Dittmer and Apelt 2008;Enloe 2014;Ette 2013;Fiala 2008;King 2017;MacKenzie 2015;Wadham et al 2018;Woodward and Winter 2007). Furthermore, "femonationalism," embodied by the figure of the Western "equal-opportunity soldier" (Eichler 2013, 256), works to reproduce the gendered/racialized hierarchies used to legitimize Western interventions, further accentuating the contradictory positionalities of women/ LGBT+ soldiers (Enloe 2014;Hunt 2006;Khalid 2011;Shepherd 2017;Sjoberg 2010).…”

Section: Visibility Soldiering and Art/theatermentioning

confidence: 99%

“To those who choose to follow in our footsteps”: making women/LGBT+ soldiers (in)visible through feminist “her-story” theater

Dolan

Danilova

2022

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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Building on Judith Butler's understanding of visibility as "the object of continuous regulation and contestation," art/aesthetics studies in international relations, and feminist theater studies, we identify feminist "herstory" theater as a unique site where Western "gender-/sexuality-inclusive" soldiering is visibilized, contested, and subverted. Drawing on ethnographic observations of two award-winning dramas, interviews with artists and military hosts, and findings from a wider research project on contemporary British military culture, we reveal the key role of heteronormative and patriarchal cultural discourses in reproducing the ambivalent positionalities of women/LGBT+ soldiers. We argue that the very visibility of women/LGBT+ soldiers on the stage paradoxically operates to make the complexities ofand struggles againstmasculinized heteronormative military cultures invisible. Furthermore, despite artists' attempts to dissociate empowerment through soldiering from the problematic context of modern conflicts, "herstory" theater ultimately entrenches gendered/racialized hierarchies that normalize Western military interventions. We conclude that only through sustained feminist reflection on the contours of "imagined" futures of female/ LGBT+ soldiering can this persistently problematic (in)visibility be productively disrupted.

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“…Kay's focus on embodied experiences of soldiering resonates with a substantial body of scholarship within the discipline of International Relations (IR). Indeed, speaking to contemporary work on militarised bodies and embodiment (Shinko 2010, Sylvester 2012, Gregory 2015, McSorley 2013, Ahall 2016, Purnell 2015and forthcoming, Wilcox 2013, 2014) and veteran's politics, disability, and gender (Danilova 2015;Higate 2001;Woodward and Winter 2007;Basham 2013;Enloe 2016), 5SOLDIERS presents a unique opportunity to explore the potential for the making (in)visible of performantive 9 , embodied, and gendered soldiering to disrupt public feelings about war. However, we argue that Kay's choreographic (re)gendering of the military bodies enacted through 5SOLDIERS' cast 10 only partially destabilizes the frame of virtuous war.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8 Research towards this piece involved participant ethnographies at 5SOLDIERS performances in Edinburgh (26/08/17) and Aldershot (22/09/17) and two interviews conducted by Kandida Purnell on September 22 nd (in person) and October 2nd 2017 (skype). 9 We follow Judith Butler (1993, 1) to understand performativity as 'the reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomenon that it regulates and constrains.' 3 keeps enemies and civilians hidden and in doing so reinstates and legitimises the framing of the Global War on Terror (GWoT) as a conflict where 'one learns how to kill but not to take responsibility for it ' (Der Derian 2001, xvi).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the dancers march past audience members, their bodies glisten with sweat and cause rhythmic vibrations through the floor, chairs, and bodies in the room. Throughout the scene, Harriet performs military masculinity with skill and conviction -her (re)gendering as masculine symbolising a positive step in gender integration (Basham 2009;King 2013 Moreover, desire for Harriet's body legitimates the sexualised fantasies of heterosexual soldiers -introducing them as an indispensable, 'human', component of soldiering, and 'letting off steam' in the army (Basham 2016) while Othering feminine bodies, queer soldiers, and subordinate masculinities. Such Othering is also critical towards 5SOLDIERS' making of war as virtuous.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Dancing at the frontline: Rosie Kay’s 5SOLDIERS de-realises and re-secures war

Purnell

Danilova

2018

Critical Studies on Security

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The Body Is the Frontline is an award-winning production and the result of a decade's research, networking, and advocacy by Rosie Kay-a British contemporary dancer and choreographer. Between 2010 and the time of writing 2 , 5SOLDIERS was performed on military bases in the UK, Germany, and Spain 3 , featured as part of the Army@Fringe programme at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival 4 , and live-streamed by the BBC. 5 Choreographed by Kay after gaining unprecedented access to the British Army, 5SOLDIERS makes (in)visible, what are described in the production's marketing materials (The Rosie Kay Dance Company 2017) as, 'viscerale' and 'disturbing' portrayals of soldiering and war. Indeed, through 5SOLDIERS, Kay intends to counteract late-modern, biopolitical warfare's apparent cleanliness and dis-embodimentit's virtuousness and de-realisation in the eyes of the public (Der Derian 2001)-by challenging the sensitivities and perceptions of a 'disengaged civilian audience' (Kay and Reynolds 2016). Kay does this by placing soldierised dancer bodies 6 in extremely close proximity to 5SOLDIERS' 1 This paper is part of the wider research project, 'War Commemoration, Military Culture and Identity Politics in Scotland' funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities in Scotland, 2017-18 (RG13890/70560). 2 October-November 2017. 3 5SOLDIERS has been commissioned to tour the USA in 2017-2018. 4 5SOLDIERS was live streamed on 08/09/2017 and made available to view online until 14/10/17. 5 During the Fringe Festival 5SOLDIERS was shown at the Hepburn House Army Reserve Centre which hosted the 5SOLDIERS cast for the duration of their stay in Edinburgh. 6 Like Kay, The 5SOLDIERS' cast trained alongside British Army Infantry Regiments.

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Gender and militaries: the importance of military masculinities for the conduct of state sanctioned violence

Cited by 18 publications

References 56 publications

Factors Influencing Lifetime Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Ever-Partnered Men in South Sudan

Factors Influencing Lifetime Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Ever-Partnered Men in South Sudan

“To those who choose to follow in our footsteps”: making women/LGBT+ soldiers (in)visible through feminist “her-story” theater

Dancing at the frontline: Rosie Kay’s 5SOLDIERS de-realises and re-secures war

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