Guest Lecture: Tom Digby (Springfield College)
Ideas of masculine and femininity become sharply defined in war-reliant societies, resulting in a presumed enmity between men and women. This so-called “battle of the sexes” derives partly from a model of heterosexual eroticism that is characterized by male dominance and female subordination. It is intensified by the use of misogyny to encourage men and boys to conform to the demands of warrior masculinity, including the suppression of empathy, and more broadly, emotional “toughness.”
Consequently, gender in war-reliant societies is inseparable from sacrifice and terror. Drawing on cross-cultural comparisons and examples from popular media, I describe the cultural programming of gender that is specific to militaristic societies, and its harmful, sweeping consequences for men and women in their personal, romantic, sexual, professional, and political lives.
In the contemporary world, war is gradually becoming de-gendered, so gender is gradually becoming de-militarized. However, both trends are impeded by the cultural inertia of masculinity, fueled largely by misogyny.
