Why critical military studies needs to smash imperial white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy: a rejoinder
By Marsha G. Henry
Department of Gender Studies(what a surprise), London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
In my article 'Problematizing military masculinity, intersectionality and male vulnerability in feminist critical military studies' (2017), I outline some of the innovations in previous research on military masculinity; its plural and more broad formation as militarized masculinities and some of the new, yet limited, directions of research which pays attention to gender in studies of militarized individuals and communities. In particular, I draw on the work of Crenshaw (1989, 1991), one of the founding black feminist scholars of the concept of intersectionality, in order to share my increasing anxiety with what I argue is a process of depoliticization in critical military studies (CMS). However, to call this depoliticization is itself problematic. What I should have argued is that this is rather a re-politicization and reinforcement of racial, gender, and class hierarchies both inside and outside of formal militaries and within and across a range of academic disciplines. This is evident in the superfidal engagement with intersectionality by some military masculinity scholars or the use of intersectionality in what Carbado (2013) calls 'colour-blind' ways which 'cover over' privilege' through the co-optation of a radical and emancipatory body of theories for examining 'multiple differences' and which I discuss in more detail (Henry 2017). Scholars who use intersectionality as a framework for challenging interlocking oppressions, and those primarily interested in the interface or the mutually constituting nature of masculinities and militarization, may be engaged in different epistemic and political projects. Yet it is surprising that the feminist inspiration generated by Enloe in the concept of military masculinity (1983) seems to have waned in regard to paying attention to constructions of femininity, femininities, and patriarchy (Enloe 2017). There is a scholarship that pays attention to women in the military, military femininities, and female military masculinities Sasson-Levy 2011; Tasker 2002), but this work remains marginal within the subfield of militarized masculinities. Has the potential for critical perspectives within CMS been extinguished by a focus on military masculinity without feminism? Without intersectional feminism? While the subfield of militarized masculinities has been innovative in taking gender seriously in the context of male-dominated institutions, I ask, where are studies that focus on the persistence of patriarchy (Enloe 2017) and militarized femininities as a subject in their own right (Enloe 2015)?
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