Patriarchal Confusion?

In this article I investigate the possible uses of Cynthia Enloe's idea of ‘patriarchal confusion’ in understanding gay and lesbian military identity. Through an analysis of military discourses surrounding the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the British military since 2000, and using original interview data with serving personnel, I examine the contradictory ways in which queer identity has been incorporated within a military dominated by heteronormative masculinity. By examining conflicting attitudes towards gay and lesbian soldiers' participation in Pride marches, I show how patriarchal understandings of military identity become ‘confused’ by both heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender personnel. I argue for a move away from viewing the integration of non-traditional recruits through the dichotomous lens of subversion or co-option, and instead call for an engagement with the ambiguities and confusions that arise from that integration. Reading this confusion through Butler's concept of performativity, I demonstrate how even confused ideas about gender can reproduce patriarchy, and why patriarchy often simultaneously fails to reproduce itself. A performative reading of ‘patriarchal confusion’ therefore indicates the radically contingent character of the reproduction of patriarchal norms in the military and suggests that sites of confusion might be fertile grounds for feminist interventions. Keywords: gendersexualitymilitaryidentitymasculinityPrideLGBTpatriarchyconfusionperformativityhomonormativity Acknowledgments I would like to thank Julia Welland and Timothy Cooper for their detailed and insightful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and members of the Enloe Award Committee who provided immensely constructive feedback. Notes See for example Reardon (1985) Reardon, B. 1985. Sexism and the War System, New York: Teachers College Press. 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There is an interesting politics at work when researchers anonymize people who want to be heard as themselves, but a discussion of this is beyond the scope of this paper. In this article I use the term ‘gay’ to refer to all sexual minorities in a general sense and I use ‘LGBT’ when I am referring specifically to all non-heterosexual personnel who are now recognized in this way by military authorities. I recognize that neither term is without problems. See also evidence in Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill 1996 Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill. 1996. Special Report from the Committee on the Armed Forces Bill, 30 April 1996, HC143 1995-96 [Google Scholar]. For a detailed account of the challenge to the ban see Bulmer 2012 Bulmer, S. 2012. Securing the Gender Order: Homosexuality and the British Armed Forces, University of Exeter. PhD Thesis [Google Scholar]. Lustig-Prean and Beckett v UK and Smith and Grady v UK. 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