Military masculinities on television: Who Dares Wins

ABSTRACT

In the UK, people in their millions still tune in to watch ex-soldiers train civilians in an imitation of the SAS selection process in the reality television show SAS: Who Dares Wins. Contestants run drills, jump off cliffs and are subjected to interrogation training; all, to undertake ‘the greatest test of their physical and psychological resilience’. This paper uncovers both the versions of military masculinity that are produced in this show, and what these versions do culturally. Through a critical reading of the five central series (2015–2020), the paper exposes the resilient tropes of military masculinity and military training, including: the ‘no pain no gain, mind over matter, training is hell’, Spartan version of soldiering. It argues that this rearticulation of military masculinity serves to answer particular contemporary cultural anxieties around both the ‘crisis’ in masculinity and the inclusion of women into the regiment. That is not to say there are not incoherencies, ambivalences and complexities introduced; but in the world of the show at least, there is not much that a few more push-ups cannot overcome. SASWDW contributes to the understanding of the symbolic and cultural imaginaries of military masculinities and militarisation and their ongoing significance in British culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Military masculinity
• Special Forces
• SAS
• television
• militarism

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Rhys Crilley and Nat Jester who discussed this paper with me, and as always thank to Jennifer Rigby for her role as proof reader.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The opening show attracted 1.7 million viewers (Johnson, 2015), there have been two celebrity spin off series. E.g. Billington (2019), The hard way: adapt survive win Middleton (2018) First man in: leading from the front.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louise Pears

Louise Pears is a Lecturer in Global Security Challenges in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. As a feminist researcher her work is concerned with investigating the ‘margins, silences and bottom rungs’ of international security. She has published work on security, popular culture, and audiences. She is a sporadic Twitter user @louisekpears