Finding communalities, making differences, performing masculinities: reflections of young men on military service

Abstract

In Finland more than 80% of the male population participates in military service. Going to the army is an important step in the transition to male adulthood and a period for further education. This paper explores reflections on the army of 20‐year‐old men, some of whom have it already behind them and some others with their military service forthcoming. The focus is on exploring the kinds of masculinities that are constructed when talking about experiences or expectations. The paper suggests that, when talking about the army, male bonds are established which unite men from different cultural, educational and social backgrounds, as well as different generations. This communality is discussed in relation to differences. I concentrate on the making of differences due to the formal hierarchies within the army, between men and the women who participate in military service and between Finns and immigrants in the army. The final discussion is on attitude, endurance and the construction of ‘proper’ masculinity. The paper draws from interviews of 21 young men conducted in a longitudinal, ethnographically grounded study on youth transitions.

Notes

* Department of Education, PO Box 9, 0014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: [email protected]

1. Finland is not a NATO member. Two severe wars against the former Soviet Union (1939–1940 and 1941–1944) still live in the memories of older generations. Finland has a long boundary with Russia. Therefore discussion whether such a strong army is needed has not been very urgent—although it reappears regularly.

2. For me, this study is a part of a wider research project Inclusions and exclusions in educational processes, which I direct. It is supported by the Academy of Finland (project number 52031) and the University of Helsinki.

3. Project Citizenship, difference and marginality in schools: with special reference to gender (Academy of Finland, Gordon as a director). Other members of the research team were Pirkko Hynninen, Tuija Metso, Tarja Palmu and Tarja Tolonen. We cooperated with Janet Holland and her colleagues in London.

4. Drawing from this earlier set of interviews, I have written two articles on young people’s reflections on the army, discussing it in relation to nationality and to gendered paths into adulthood (Lahelma, 2000, 2002a). For these articles I also analysed the interviews of the young women in the study.

5. Eight of the interviews are conducted by Tuula Gordon. I am also grateful to Tuula for discussions and comments.

6. The names are pseudonyms. The extracts from interviews in this paper are mostly from the second set of interviews, at the age of around 20. When the earlier interviews are used, ‘18’ is marked after the name. The interviewees are male, unless marked ‘female’.

7. Small towns in the Helsinki region which have the tone of inferiority or periphery in the language of young people from the most appreciated areas of Helsinki.

8. Because of the rather open structure of the interviews and myriad of themes to cover, we did not initiate discussion on the regulars in the army in every interview, nor of all other themes discussed in this paper.

9. In the ethnographic study in schools we also have observed situations when some boys ridicule the high voice of some girls in the classrooms (see Gordon et al., 2000).

10. It is possible that my position as a researcher may have contributed to this ambivalence in their speech.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elina Lahelma*

* Department of Education, PO Box 9, 0014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: [email protected]