Special men: The gendered militarization of the Canadian Armed Forces
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702017741910 |
| Author | Andrea Lane |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
Scholarly Essay
Special men: The
gendered militarization
of the Canadian
Armed Forces
Andrea Lane
Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada
Abstract
The militarization of Canadian society since 9/11 has attracted considerable academic
attention. What has largely escaped notice is the simultaneous process of remilitariza-
tion undergone by the Canadian Armed Forces, in which a more aggressive ‘‘warrior’’
posture has encouraged the development of male-only special forces units, further
exacerbating the existing gendered combat/noncombat binary. This article explores
this process, arguing that the state of exception created by the Global War on
Terror has allowed the de facto exclusion of women from the Canadian Armed
Forces’ most highly valued roles, even as the military continues to assert its gender
neutrality and progressive, integrated force structure.
Keywords
Canada, military, special forces, militarization, gender
Introduction
The phenomenon of militarization—the encroachment of military values, symbols,
and practices on civilian life—has, since the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the
ensuing Global War on Terror (GWOT), received considerable academic attention.
Concomitant with the militarization of civilian space has been its masculinization,
which has been noted by feminist and critical scholars to be inextricably
linked to militarization through the fetishizing of masculine-coded attributes
such as stoicism, valour, courage, and physical strength. In Canada, the militar-
ization of society after 9/11 has been explored through analyses of children’s
International Journal
2017, Vol. 72(4) 463–483
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702017741910
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Corresponding author:
Andrea Lane, Political Science, Dalhousie University, 6299 South Street, Room 301, PO Box 15000,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada.
Email: aplane@dal.ca
literature, drama, yellow ribbon campaigns, and the Highway of Heroes.
1
This
important research has quite reasonably focused on the militarization and mascu-
linization of civilian society, where its effects are most readily noticeable and
concerning.
However, the militarization of Canadian society has run in parallel with a less-
visible and equally pernicious masculinist remilitarization of the Canadian Armed
Forces (CAF.) This is being accomplished, I argue, in two ways: material and
narrative.
2
Materially, this remilitarization has been effected by the creation, fund-
ing, and deployment of de facto male-only special forces units and command struc-
tures throughout the CAF, and by the privatization and de-militarization of
support roles within the military, positions historically filled by women.
Narratively, it has been enacted by the post-9/11 emphasis on an aggressive
combat role for the CAF, and by repeated invocations of the need for the re-
allocation of defence assets to the frontline ‘‘teeth’’ away from the support
‘‘tail.’’ Together, these effects have reified an existing gendered binary within
Canada and the CAF, with the net result that women are less and less able to
access the benefits that Canadian society extends to CAF members and veterans, as
these benefits are increasingly granted on the basis of ‘‘combat service.’’ Begun in
the 1990s and accelerated under former prime minister Stephen Harper, this mas-
culinist remilitarization has been obscured from civilian view by the ‘‘state of
exception’’ precipitated by the GWOT, by the uncritical celebration of special
forces in the Canadian media, and by the generally low level of knowledge of
military matters in Canada. Answering Cynthia Enloe’s call to think seriously
about the military and its consequences for society,
3
I adopt a feminist approach
to the question of ‘‘why SOF?’’ (special operations forces) in order to underscore
the ways in which gendered processes of transformation within the CAF have been
able to occur with little public or academic debate. This article seeks to adumbrate
this remilitarization and, in doing so, contribute to a better understanding of how
Canada has been changed since 9/11.
This paper begins with a discussion of the status of women within the CAF, and
an explanation of how the small gains made by women in the military are seen
1. For example, David Mutimer, ‘‘The road to Afghanada: Militarization in Canadian popular culture
during the war in Afghanistan,’’ Critical Military Studies 2, no. 3 (2016): 210–225; A. L. McCready,
‘‘Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round public discourse, national identity, and the war,’’ Topia: Canadian
Journal of Cultural Studies 23–24 (2010): 28–51; Ian McKay and Jamie Swift, Warrior Nation:
Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety (Toronto: Between The Lines, 2012); Kevin Walby and
Jeff Monaghan, ‘‘Policing proliferation: On militarization and Atomic Energy Canada Limited’s
nuclear response forces,’’ Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 52, no. 2 (2010):
117–128; Tina Managhan, ‘‘Highways, heroes, and secular martyrs: The symbolics of power and
sacrifice,’’ Review of International Studies 38, no. 1 (2012): 97–118.
2. While many post-structuralist scholars argue that the material and the discursive cannot meaning-
fully be separated, I have chosen to (somewhat artificially) do so here in order to address my
argument to a broader, mainstream defence policy audience, one which does not always take ser-
iously notions of discourse or narrative.
3. Cynthia Enloe, ‘‘The recruiter and the sceptic: A critical feminist approach to military studies,’’
Critical Military Studies 1, no. 1 (2015): 3–10.
464 International Journal 72(4)
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