Feeling and militarism at Ms Veteran America

This article examines United States (US) women service members’ and veterans’ feelings about their military lives and afterlives as they participated in the annual Ms Veteran America (MVA) contest. Drawing on observations and qualitative interviews, the article explores the workings of gendered power within the US armed forces, and US militarism more broadly, through the tensions and contradictions of these women’s experiences. The article makes two contributions. First, MVA is shown to be a rich site for feminist analysis, with the contest constituting a distinct political space that permits the expression of emotions and affects that contestants feel otherwise unable to express in their everyday military lives. Second, through its attention to the range of emotions and affects felt by the women, the article complicates stories of militarized desire, as contestants are simultaneously drawn toward and pulled away from their military lives and US militarism. The article argues that the everyday functioning of US military life relies on, and is productive of, particular feelings of its women members, and that these affective experiences matter for understanding US militarism and military power.