Masculinities, Gender and International Relations

220 Pages·2022·4.778 MB·English

by  Terrell Carver, Laura Lyddon

MASCULINITIES,
GENDER AND
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
Terrell Carver and Laura Lyddon
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by
Bristol University Press
University of Bristol
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© Bristol University Press 2022
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-5292-1228-0 hardcover
ISBN 987-1-5292-1229-7 paperback
ISBN 978-1-5292-1230-3 ePub
ISBN 978-1-5292-1231-0 ePdf
The right of Terrell Carver and Laura Lyddon to be identifi ed as authors of this work
has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of
the authors and not of the University of Bristol or Bristol University Press. The
University of Bristol and Bristol University Press disclaim responsibility for any injury
to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication.
Bristol University Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race,
disability, age and sexuality.
Cover design: Liam Roberts Design
Front cover image: ivanastar/iStock
Bristol University Press uses environmentally responsible
print partners.
Printed in Great Britain by CMP, Poole
To my parents, Mary and Dave.
LL
To the curious feminist, seriously!
TC

Contents
Detailed Contents vii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
1 Wasn’t It Always Just About Men Anyway? 1
2 Sovereign States, Warring States, Queer States 17
3 Arms and the Men 55
4 Gender at Work! ‘Get Pissed and Buy Guns’ 89
5 Looking Back/Pushing Ahead 127
Notes 171
Index 195
v

Detailed Contents
1 Wasn’t It Always Just About Men Anyway? 1
Gender asymmetry 3
Founding fathers 5
The ‘m-word’ 6
Legitimacy as a noun/legitimizing as a verb 7
Hegemony and masculinities: power and domination 9
Domination by consent 11
Moving on and reaching out 11
Further reading 15
2 Sovereign States, Warring States, Queer States 17
War and peace, arms and the man 21
How does the queer contain the normal? 23
States and nations 25
How sexuality queers gender 29
Queering penetration and state rape 30
GWOT – a ‘probable queer’ war 32
Torture and taboo 37
Visibly queered heterosexual masculinity 40
Overt queerness and hypervisible masculinity 43
Costa Rica – a ‘probable queer’ state 47
Is Costa Rica actually faking it? 50
Conclusions 52
Further reading 54
3 Arms and the Men 55
‘Blessed are the deal-makers’ 58
The legitimate/illegitimate dichotomy 60
Focusing down with the gender lens 62
CITS-UGA briefing paper 66
vii
MASCULINITIES, GENDER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The UK – bourgeois-rational warrior-protector 73
Mutual legitimation: state and industry 76
Masculinity and legitimation 79
Conclusions 85
Further reading 87
4 Gender at Work! ‘Get Pissed and Buy Guns’ 89
All the fun of the fair 92
Warrior-protector man meets bourgeois-rational man 93
Dressing to impress 95
Warrior masculinity and the erasure of violence 102
and death
Bourgeois-rational masculinity and the erasure 105
of violence and death
Summing up/moving on 108
Corporate players in the weapons game 109
Race–gender–class 110
Legitimation 1: Armed force as inevitable, 112
normalized and glorified
Legitimation 2: The erasure of violence and death 114
Legitimation 3: BAE Systems as a multinational 117
symbol
Legitimation 4: BAE Systems as a diverse, 120
progressive, ethical, equal opportunities employer
Looking ahead 125
Further reading 125
5 Looking Back/Pushing Ahead 127
Bottom-up/grass roots 128
Consent/complicity 134
Big boys/small toys 139
Visible/invisible/hypervisible 143
How they get away with it 147
The Wallström narrative 150
And how they fight back 154
Stand together/divide and rule 160
‘We can’t even march straight’ 162
Wrapping up/moving on 164
Further reading 169
viii
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Bristol University Press,
and in particular Stephen Wenham, who looked back on his
undergraduate years at Bristol and thought there might be some
exciting updates to his experiences. They would also like to
thank the anonymous reviewers and a number of very helpful
colleagues who very kindly read drafts and commented.
Terrell Carver is grateful to the School of Sociology, Politics
& International Studies, University of Bristol, for a period
of study leave during the academic year 2019–20, which
was instrumental in developing this joint project. He would
also like to acknowledge his affiliation as Research Associate,
SA-UK Bilateral Chair in Political Theory, University of the
Witwatersrand, South Africa, with particular thanks to Critical
South (www.criticalsouth.blog), which posted ‘The m-word’,
revised here for Chapter 1.
Laura Lyddon would like to give thanks to everyone who
assisted and supported her with, and during, her PhD, many of
whom were duly acknowledged in her thesis. In particular, she
would like to thank the University of Bristol for the research
scholarship that enabled her to undertake the PhD, her PhD
supervisors, Terrell Carver and Paul Higate, and her PhD peers
and friends: Terri-Anne Teo, Oscar Berglund, Sabine Qian,
Audrey Reeves, Rupert Alcock and Natasha Carver (no relation
to Terrell Carver). Special thanks and recognition also go to
Olly, Sol, Zephyr and Allison.
ix