The making of military heroes by the Israeli media

The term 'soldier' is frequently conceptualized as a warrior, a peacekeeper, or a hybrid of both. However, recent changes in the utilization of soldiers in societies have moved the repertoire of possible ways to think, act, and behave beyond these notions. As such, there exists an undertheorized gap between different expectations of soldiers and actual soldier roles. This presents a need for more nuanced and analytically useful conceptualizations of soldier roles. This article provides a more thorough understanding of the soldier role by identifying seven ideal types of soldiers: the warrior, nation-defender, law-enforcer, humanitarian, state-builder, and the ideological, and contractor soldiers. The typology offers an analytical tool with the capacity to maneuver the empirical reality, which is important because how soldier roles are constructed affect how military personnel understand their role in the postmodern world, where identity is multifaceted and negotiable. Ultimately, identity influences how soldiers interact with societies and how societies respond to war, conflicts, and crises.

show abstract

The silent women: The representation of Israeli female soldiers in Israeli women’s films

Moshe

Aharoni

2020

Journal of Screenwriting

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Israel has known seven wars, seven prominent violent operations and numerous military conflicts. During this period (1948–2019), 86 Israeli screen stories have engaged with the motif of Israel’s military/wars. However, only two of them were written by women and focused on the female Israeli soldier. The marginal position of screen stories based on Israeli women’s experience in the military presents a unique opportunity to unravel the notions female screenwriters have of women’s conduct in a patriarchal military culture. Our findings suggest that female Israeli screenwriters (a) propose a dual vision for women – on the one hand, they are portrayed as silenced, while on the other they use silence as a coping tactic; (b) represent the hegemonic male as silencing women’s voices even though in some cases women silence hegemonic men; and (c) depict military service as an opportunity for women to unravel their femininity.

show abstract

The making of military heroes by the Israeli media

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

Militär und Medien

Militär und Medien

New societies, new soldiers? A soldier typology

The silent women: The representation of Israeli female soldiers in Israeli women’s films

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About