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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Rachel WoodwardORCiD
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This article explores the relationships between soliders, masculinity and the countryside. It draws on a variety of published materials ranging from army recruitment literature to military autobiography. It is located primarily on conceptual frameworks suggested by feminist and rural studies literatures. Following a brief discussion of the historical contribution of the military to ideas of rurality, the relationships between soliders, masculinity and the countryside are explored. First, the ways in which the army constructs a particular view of the countryside are discussed. This view accords the army rights of control over space, dictates a particular way of seeing rural space, and develops a quasi-environmentalist interpretation of the impact of army activity on the landscape. Second, it is suggested that this conceptualisation of the countryside contributes specifically to the construction of particular (hegemonic) notions of masculinity. The ideas of adventure and danger are particularly important in this respect. Third, the role of the body of the soldier in this process is examined. The construction of a specific gendered identity through a process of transformation from civilian to solider is discussed. The article concludes by suggesting how the body of the soldier is used to signify particular senses of place.
Author(s): Woodward R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Gender, Place and Culture
Year: 1998
Volume: 5
Issue: 3
Pages: 277-300
Print publication date: 01/11/1998
ISSN (print): 0966-369X
ISSN (electronic): 1360-0524
Publisher: Routledge
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663699825214
DOI: 10.1080/09663699825214
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