The (Hetero)Sexualization of the Military and the Militarization of (Hetero)Sex

Discourses on Male (Hetero)Sexual Practices among a Group of Young Men in the South African Military

Bibliographic Data

ID18972503
AuthorsT Shefer (0000-0002-1201-8043, University of the Western Cape, corresponding author), Nyameka Mankayi (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Year2007
Volume10
Issue2
Pages189-207
Publication date2007-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460707075801
OpenAlexW2065568073
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited30

The article is framed in the context of the challenge of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and recognizes that military men are particularly vulnerable to infection. This is argued on the basis of their specific contexts of mobility, isolation and being among communities where they have greater economic and political power, as well as in relation to their identities and sexualities as men, and how these are exaggerated by the institutional framework of the military. Drawing on data from a larger study exploring a group of military men's narratives on their masculinity, sexuality, sexual relationships and HIV/AIDS, the discussion is presented in four broad thematic areas. These point to core aspects of the dominant construction of male sexualities in the military and the complex intersection of hegemonic masculinities and military masculinities, which facilitate a particular vulnerability to unsafe sexual practices. The article concludes with a recommendation that tackling HIV in the military needs to involve rigorous examination of how constructions of masculinity in the military context, at the level of material conditions and in terms of normative discourses on what it means to be a man in the military, exert specific pressures on men to adhere to traditional models of being a man with their attendant sexual practices

Geography · Hegemonic masculinity · Hegemony · Human sexuality · Masculinity · Men who have sex with men · Militarization · Political science · Politics · Sexualization · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Medicine

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