“Jugamos a la guerra”: Boys, Toys, and Military Masculinity in Galdós’s La desheredada

In the sixth chapter of Benito Pérez Galdós’s La desheredada, we find children at play in an impoverished neighborhood of Madrid. But what at first glance appears to be a simple representation of boys playing war is, upon closer inspection, a problematization of Spanish masculinity. This article suggests that the concepts of militarism and masculinity were synonymous throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Galdós, however, critiques this conflation by converting the children’s game into a tragedy.

Militarizing antimilitarism? Exploring the gendered representation of military service in German recruitment videos on social media

This article analyzes the gendered representation of military service in the German YouTube series Die Rekruten (DR) (The Recruits), a popular web series produced on behalf of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) for recruitment purposes, which accompanies 12 navy recruits during their basic training. The article is situated within research on masculinity and the military, in particular military recruitment. It supplements current scholarship by studying a previously neglected case that is of particular interest given Germany’s antimilitarist culture, which should make military recruitment and military public relations more difficult. The article asks how military service is represented in DR, what its discursive effects are, and what role (if any) masculinity plays in this process. We find support for recent feminist research on military masculinities (including in military recruitment) that emphasizes ambiguity and contradiction. What distinguishes the construction of military masculinity in DR from, for example, recruitment advertisements in the United States or the United Kingdom is its markedly civil character. This not only broadens the military’s appeal for a more diverse audience but also increases the legitimacy of the military and its activities. It does so by concealing the violence that has for the past two decades also been a very real part of what the Bundeswehr does.

From Military Masculinity toward Hybrid Masculinities: Constructing a New Sense of Manhood among Veterans Treated for PTSS

This study examines how Israeli men who are army veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress and consequently participated in therapy engage “new masculinities” ideologies. Drawing from interview data with these veterans, we find changes in the men’s perceptions of masculinity and sense of themselves as men. They expressed this shift through criticisms of military masculinity and disassociating from the idea of man-as-fighter, disputing the sociocultural category of hegemonic masculinity, and performing practices identified as feminine. The men portrayed this movement, away from endorsing hegemonic military masculinity toward affirming “new masculinity” ideology rooted in therapeutic discourse, which emphasizes sensitivity, emotional disclosure, self-care, and seeking help, as intertwined with their mental recovery—and they attributed both to therapy. These findings suggest that new masculinity ideology embedded in therapeutic discourse, can offer men suffering from PTSS a template to reaffirm their status as men—although men of a different kind—and indicate the possibilities for therapy in this endeavor. However, while the men adopted new masculinity ideologies, they also conformed to hegemonic masculinity, constructing hybrid masculinities. The study joins growing evidence that hybrid masculinities may have positive effects in enabling men to overcome the limitations of hegemonic masculinity, while also conforming to its expectations more broadly and maintaining men’s power.

Heal and Serve

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan can be seen as a laboratory for examining the Soviet construction of masculinity during the last decade of the USSR. Focusing on male Soviet military doctors as individuals, this article aims to present how these doctors constructed their virile presentation of self in a war situation and how they managed their position within the military community. Taking a pragmatic historical approach, the article considers the doctors through their interactions with both women and men, examining gendered practices such as “protecting weak people,” “asserting authority,” “expressing emotions (or not),” and “impressing others.” It offers a case study for the analysis of one of the many forms of Soviet military masculinity under late socialism and its place in Soviet society.

War, Culture, and Gender in Colonial and Revolutionary North America

The warfare of colonial and revolutionary North America, from European–native conflicts and the Seven Years’ War to the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, has only recently come to be considered in gendered terms. The roles of both women and men in North American warfare underwent enormous changes from the last quarter of the sixteenth century to the first quarter of the nineteenth. Two major themes are at the center of this chapter: on the one hand, the theme of the contested and changing constructions of military masculinity of Native Americans, British, and French white settlers and the British and French armies that were brought to North America especially in the context of the Seven Years’ War; and on the other hand, the theme of women’s different and changing involvement in warfare, which is related to the contested and changing representations of femininity in the different war societies.

Post-1945 Western Militaries, Female Soldiers, and Gay and Lesbian Rights

This chapter analyzes the changing policies of the Western militaries toward female, gay, and lesbian soldiers in the post-1945 era and the challenges these policies posed to dominant ideas of military masculinity. The focus will be on the NATO states of Britain, Canada, and the United States with different military traditions. The chapter discusses the main blocking, enabling and driving factors for policies of integrating women as well as gays and lesbians in these three countries. It argues that their integration was fostered, first, by the move to professional armies based on volunteers, which led to growing military manpower needs; second, by the expanding centrality of degendered technological sophistication, which allowed the integration of more and more women, because it required skills and knowledge and not mainly strength; third, by social movements that pushed for equal rights for women and queer people; and fourth, a change in public opinion.

Military Masculinity and the Deserting Soldier in Stop-Loss (2008)

The chapter outlines the deserter narrative in American war culture, with a focus on the inherent tensions between normative ideals of masculinity and transgressive notions of cowardice. The chapter then analyzes Kimberly Peirce’s 2008 Iraq War film Stop-Loss in this context. The U.S. war film genre is regulated by certain conventions regarding masculinity, heroism and national identity, but by presenting the transgressive act of desertion as one of moral courage, Peirce challenges established notions of military masculinity and national identity. This challenge remains temporary, though: the main character retains the culturally powerful trope of the ideal male soldier. Ultimately, he is unable to turn his back on his men and his country, and the film is unable to fully undermine the potent trope that links nation, military and masculinity.