What’s the problem with the concept of military masculinities?

ABSTRACT

This think piece queries the value of the concept of military masculinities. This overly familiar and comfortable concept is perhaps falling short of its intended ambitions. Masculinized and militarized violence is rampant and no amount of ‘adding women’ (or other ‘others’) seems to make a difference. This begs the question of how much work we imagine concepts can do, as well as how much control we think we have over them.

KEYWORDS:

• Concepts
• masculinities
• violence
• gender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.​

Notes

1. Newcastle University, November 2015.

2. Or indeed any (human) body at all including the increased use of sophisticated technologies, drones, intelligence, and cyber activity.

3. Though institutional gender discrimination would suggest the female ‘military person’ has to be ‘better’ than her male counterparts to achieve the same grade(s).

4. Currently (at time of writing) Grayson Perry (British artist) hosts a UK Channel 4 television series on ‘All Man’ in which he visits ultra-male worlds to explore how contemporary masculinity shapes the lives and expectations of men in Britain today. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grayson-perry-all-man.