‘Good Soldiers’, ‘Bad Apples’ and the ‘Boys’ Club’: Media Representations of Military Sex Scandals and Militarized Masculinities

Abstract

This thesis examines news representations of Canadian, American and Australian military personnel involved in military 'sex scandals'. I explore what the representations of military personnel involved in well-publicized sex scandals reveal about scripts of soldiering and militarized masculinities. Despite a history of systemic violence in the military, I ask how and why the systemic nature of militarized masculinities are able to remain invisible, driving representations to focus on the ‘bad’ behaviour of individuals? By engaging with feminist scholarship in International Relations, I present the longstanding culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and ableism in the Canadian, American and Australian militaries, focusing on the ways in which militarized masculinities are guided by these violent structures, and fundamental to the military's creation of soldiers. My dissertation uses the tools of critical discourse analysis to unpack the ways blame is individualised in cases of sexual and racist violence involving military personnel, while the military’s ableism, rape culture and imperial militarized masculinities are commonly naturalized or celebrated without regard for how they are fundamentally violent. My thesis presents an intersectional feminist project that intervenes in emerging questions in the field of transnational disability studies, tracing how militarism, hegemonic militarized masculinities and imperial soldiering (re)produce categories of ability and disability.