Unmanned? Gender Recalibrations and the Rise of Drone Warfare

Volo, Lorraine Bayard de

doi:10.1017/s1743923x15000252

Cited by 20 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In particular, the growing use of drones in warfare raises questions about whether combat confers or upends militarized virility (Millar and Tidy, 2017 ). Because honor and courage have been associated with the risk of self-harm, drone pilots that employ finesse and mental toughness from a safe, remote office are inadvertently challenging the traditional emphasis on physical strength that has been central to militarized masculinity (de Volo, 2016 ). Furthermore, drone pilots also may be part of covert operations that can bring accusations of cowardice (de Volo, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because honor and courage have been associated with the risk of self-harm, drone pilots that employ finesse and mental toughness from a safe, remote office are inadvertently challenging the traditional emphasis on physical strength that has been central to militarized masculinity (de Volo, 2016 ). Furthermore, drone pilots also may be part of covert operations that can bring accusations of cowardice (de Volo, 2016 ). Furthermore, the masculinity of both those responsible for remote-controlled strikes as well as the male targets of those drone strikes could be considered superfluous (de Volo, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Symbolism of the US battlefield cross: how boots, rifles, and helmets reinforce masculinity

Dundes

2023

Front. Sociol.

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This paper explores the unconscious symbolism of the battlefield cross memorial, which is comprised of combat boots and a rifle, often with dog tags attached, topped by a helmet. While the memorial's manifest function is to provide solace, build solidarity, and convey respect for patriotic sacrifice in response to grief, the battlefield cross also exalts masculinity at a subliminal level. Because of the latent ways in which the components of the battlefield cross reinforce fallen soldiers' masculinity, the memorial provides an outlet for bereavement according to a masculine script that treats virility as sacrosanct. The resonance of the battlefield cross and its synergism with unrecognized gender coding in broader society illustrate how a powerful symbol intended to honor members of the military also valorizes machismo. This qualitative interpretation could help explain impediments to women achieving parity with men in the military.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolism of the US battlefield cross: how boots, rifles, and helmets reinforce masculinity

Dundes

2023

Front. Sociol.

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“…As Hutchings (2008: 397) also points out, ‘this picture is complicated by the fact that the norms of masculinity are variable and enforce not only hierarchical distinctions between men and women, but also between different men’. This is an important caveat that appears in discussions regarding the conditions under which drone pilots can be considered heroes, suggesting a variety of gendered hierarchies at play (Bayard de Volo, 2016). Another example is the rational masculinity of civilian defense intellectuals described by Cohn (1989), which is similar to that required of a general but different from the attributes an infantry soldier would emphasize.…”

Section: Feminists Study Militarism and Masculinitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why we need to study (US) militarism: A critical feminist lens

Wibben

2018

Security Dialogue

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Responding to the special issue call to examine security and militarism alongside one another, this article adopts a critical feminist lens to explore what is at stake when critical scholars study security rather than militarism – and why, for critical feminists in particular, studying one without attention to the other is not helpful. Anchoring the discussion of (US) militarism in ongoing debates about women in combat, the article proposes that studying security without attention to militarism leads scholars to miss the deeply militarist orientation of security studies. It further suggests that feminist scholarship, because it treats militarism and militarization as an integral part of feminist security studies and considers the everyday a crucial site for inquiry, is well suited to studying militarism and security alongside one another. The article then lays out what a critical feminist approach to studying militarism entails and presents some feminist insights on militarization, focusing in particular on what attention to gender can reveal about shared norms of manliness and war. Overall, the article shows why feminist perspectives offer such strikingly different insights into the relationship between militarism and security and what we miss when feminist scholarship is ignored or marginalized in scholarship on these issues.

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“…The increased reliance on drones in the US, and increasingly around the world, 7 notably signals a change in the relationship between the military and masculinity. This is at least at the forefront of technology and war, with traditional military values associated with masculinity, such as physical strength and courage under fire, becoming less relevant to operational success (for example, see Bayard de Volo, 2016). One source suggests that 17 per cent of those assigned to drone activities at Creech Air Force Base are female, which is greater than the overall percentage of women serving in the US military (Manjikian, 2014).…”

Section: Ambivalence Of the Swarmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drones, Swarms and Becoming-Insect: Feminist Utopias and Posthuman Politics

Wilcox¹

2017

Feminist Review

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Insects and 'the swarm' as metaphors and objects of research have inspired works in the genres of science fiction and horror; social and political theorists; and the development of war-fighting technologies such as 'drone swarms', which function as robot/insect hybrids. Contemporary developments suggest that the future of warfare will not be 'robots' as technological, individualised substitutions for idealised (masculine) warfighters, but warfighters understood as swarms: insect metaphors for non-centrally organised problem-solvers that will become technologies of racialisation. As such, contemporary feminist analysis requires an analysis of the politics of life and death in the insect and the swarm, which, following Braidotti (2002), cannot be assumed to be a mere metaphor or representation of political life, but an animating materialist logic. The swarm is not only a metaphor but also a central mode of biopolitical and necropolitical war, with the 'terrorist' enemy represented as swarmlike as well. In analysing the relations of assemblage and antagonism in the war ontologies of the drone swarm, I seek inspiration from what Hayles (1999, p. 47) describes as a double vision that 'looks simultaneously at the power of simulation and at the materialities that produce it'. I discuss various representations and manifestations of swarms and insect life in science/speculative fiction, from various presentations of the 'Borg' in

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Unmanned? Gender Recalibrations and the Rise of Drone Warfare

Cited by 20 publications

References 24 publications

Symbolism of the US battlefield cross: how boots, rifles, and helmets reinforce masculinity

Symbolism of the US battlefield cross: how boots, rifles, and helmets reinforce masculinity

Why we need to study (US) militarism: A critical feminist lens

Drones, Swarms and Becoming-Insect: Feminist Utopias and Posthuman Politics

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