Theorizing Military Masculinities and National Identities: The Norwegian Experience

Abstract

Norway has based its security on aid from great military powers, and is therefore a useful site for examining the idea of complicit masculinities: a position that benefits from the current social order, and thus complying with dominant group interests and hegemonic ideals. This chapter illustrates how such a position led Norway to take an active part in Western interventionism, resulting in a military transformation that challenged national identity, the traditional hegemonic masculinity ideal and the established gender order. This caused a struggle over military identity. By examining this identity struggle the chapter contributes to the broader debates of masculinities, how they work, how they are linked to hierarchical social structures, and how military masculinity is challenged by women’s bodies.

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