Making martial politics palatable: constructing neoliberal feminist subjects in arms manufacturers’ social media feeds

Jester, Natalie

doi:10.1080/14616742.2023.2174154

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 57 publications

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“…The first area I examine is social progress, beginning with the companies' relationship with women. 112 There are a variety of ways in which women are represented within these feeds and often the women emphasised are staff. This is the case for Lockheed Martin's re-tweet of Bloomberg Quicktake 113 which showcases female staff members: '[flying saucer emoji] Meet the women of @Lockheed Martin who are in charge of these space projects:-GPS III-InSight Mars Lander-OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission .…”

Section: Distraction and Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accessible, Transparent, Progressive: Conceptualising the Militarisation of Digital Space Through the Social Media Presence of Arms Manufacturers

Jester

2023

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

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Arms sales cause serious harm and the public is – on some level – aware of this, yet their sale continues apace. Militarisation is the engendering of support for war, broadly understood, and this includes the manufacture/sale of weapons. This article examines the Twitter feeds of three large US arms manufacturers: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman (as part of a larger project where approximately 900 tweets were examined). It argues that productive tensions of exposure (knowing) and revelation (societal acknowledgement) engender militarisation within arms manufacturers’ Twitter feeds. It finds that arms manufacturers represent themselves as accessible/transparent through regular updates and high volumes of information. They also distract from the violence of their products by presenting themselves as drivers of human progress, which occurs in social, environmental and technological dimensions. Taken as a whole, the representations of accessibility and distracting content on social media function to facilitate the arms trade in this case.

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Section: Distraction and Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accessible, Transparent, Progressive: Conceptualising the Militarisation of Digital Space Through the Social Media Presence of Arms Manufacturers

Jester

2023

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

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Experts, activists, and girl bosses of the nuclear apocalypse: feminisms in security discourse

Egeland

Taha

2023

Z Friedens und Konflforsch

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Having long been regarded as irrelevant to the high politics of foreign affairs, feminism and gender equality have in recent years gained increased attention in international security debates, including discussions about nuclear weapons policy. Several governments have adopted official feminist foreign policy postures, international security institutions have launched inquiries into gender equity and representation, and a myriad of security actors have enthusiastically embraced the language of women’s empowerment. Mapping the various modes of purported feminist practice on display in the nuclear policy field, we find that being “pro women” has become a sought-after rhetorical asset on both sides of the nuclear weapons debate. Reflecting wider trends in the corporate world, constituents of the nuclear weapons industry have increasingly embraced liberal feminist language and workplace diversity goals. These practices, we suggest, have helped challenge the perception of the nuclear industry as overly masculine, aiding recruitment to, and overall political legitimation of, the nuclear weapons enterprise. This development is significant because it functions to undercut the association between feminism and opposition to nuclear weapons, thus complicating efforts to advance arms control and disarmament through feminist interventions.

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Gender Washing War: Arms Manufacturers and the Hijacking of #InternationalWomensDay

Jester,

Walters

2024

International Political Sociology

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If asked what “arms manufacturer” first brings to mind, few people would likely answer “women’s rights.” And yet, each International Women’s Day (IWD), leading global arms manufacturers present themselves as working to help bring about gender equality. “Gender washing” refers to corporate social responsibility communications aimed at presenting a corporation as empowering to women and girls, even while their own products, supply chains, or employment practices harm them. In this article, we show how arms manufacturers use social media communications about IWD to gender wash their images, positioning themselves as progressive and caring. Bringing into conversation feminist work in Security Studies and International Political Economy, we identify new varieties of gender washing specific to war and martial violence: client military and government partnerships, and constructive silence. We also expand the global hierarchy of publics targeted by gender washing communications, reflecting the fact that unlike other transnational corporations, arms manufacturers are not concerned with garnering “brand loyalty” amongst the general public. Rather, they communicate both to and with Global North governments and militaries. Thus, what is at stake in these representations, we argue, is not simply the reputation of the individual corporations concerned, but a broader process of gender washing war.

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Making martial politics palatable: constructing neoliberal feminist subjects in arms manufacturers’ social media feeds

Abstract: The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement.

Cited by 7 publications

References 57 publications

Accessible, Transparent, Progressive: Conceptualising the Militarisation of Digital Space Through the Social Media Presence of Arms Manufacturers

Accessible, Transparent, Progressive: Conceptualising the Militarisation of Digital Space Through the Social Media Presence of Arms Manufacturers

Experts, activists, and girl bosses of the nuclear apocalypse: feminisms in security discourse

Gender Washing War: Arms Manufacturers and the Hijacking of #InternationalWomensDay

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