“Military Chic” and the Rhetorical Production of the Uniformed Body

Abstract

In this essay I perform a critical analysis of military uniform rhetoric and military design aesthetics in everyday life. I compare and contrast the Army’s efforts to codify the meaning of the uniformed body with the appropriation of military uniform elements in everyday dress, from high fashion to sports to the sales rack. I argue that military-inspired styles draw on the positive ethos of the military to capitalize on the pleasures of militarism even as they rely upon the creation of rhetorical distance from the violence of war. The campy, pastiche rhetoric of milchic reinforces traditional views of femininity and cultivates affective participation in state-sponsored violence.

Keywords:

• Bodies
• Gender
• Military Uniforms
• Rhetoric
• Style

Notes

1. Though this regulation is frequently updated—in 2010, 2014, 2015—the updates often reproduce only those parts of A.R. 670–1 affected by the changes. The 2005 guide is the most comprehensive recent version of the regulation, and I therefore refer to it unless otherwise noted.

2. See, for example, Jarvis (2004); Achter (2010); McSorley (2013); Carney and Stuckey (2016); Saas and Hall (2016), and Biernhoff (2017).

3. For the purposes of this essay, I examined a broad range of retail clothing websites, print articles, slideshows, and photo spreads from the most highly circulated newspapers and magazines, and especially fashion magazines (both print and online) because they drive mainstream trends. Though the bodily rhetoric of the new militarism dates from the mid-1980s, my research revealed an increased interest in milchic during the “global war on terror” time period of 2001–2017, with a heavier emphasis on military themes in fashion from the early 2010s. These findings are consistent with scholarship in fashion and design showing that military fashions had lost their countercultural edge by the late 1990s (Wilson, 2008).

4. Among many examples, see “[Beautifully Brown],” “Makeovers that Matter (n.d.),” and “Military veteran moms (2015).”

5. This image and several other images referenced here can be viewed at blog.richmond.edu/paulachter/military-chic/.