The Part Humour Plays in the Production of Military Violence

Abstract

This article explores the connections between humour, gender and the violent function and practice of military institutions. As such it departs from a more typical theorisation of humour in international politics as a practice of rupture or resistance. Whilst humour can contest prevailing power structures, institutions, systems of oppression and violence, this article reveals the opposite. To do so, references to humour in the Ministry of Defence’s official obituaries for British fatalities from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are analysed and discussed. Firstly, conceptualisations of humour, gender and violence are considered and an approach to humour as gender practice is detailed and situated within a feminist approach to gender and military violence. Secondly, through the MOD obituaries the article then explores how humour can contribute to the violent function and practice of the military institution and the broader social and political legitimacy of the institution and its violence.

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