Masculine Ideology and Attitudes towards Violence in the Construct of Military Identity

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The article examines the mechanisms of formation and maintenance of military identity using the example of participants in a special military operation in Ukraine. Based on the concept of vocation as a key component of identity, the study examines two important dimensions of military identity — narrative and bodily. The empirical base consisted of 15 in-depth interviews and 3 completed body maps created by combatants, including wounded and demobilized military personnel. The analysis shows that the stability of military identity is supported by two key elements: a specific masculine ideology and a characteristic relationship with violence. The masculine ideology manifests itself through the constant desire for trials, the rejection of a "settled" life and the formation of closed solidarity within the homosocial community. In turn, violence, alienating itself from its operator, contributes to the formation of a specific type of sociality characterized by radical egalitarianism and a rigid division into friends and enemies. The study also addresses factors that potentially destabilize military identity — injury, disability, and captivity. Paradoxically, these events can not only undermine, but also strengthen military identity through the desire to return to combat or the search for alternative ways to maintain masculinity. The results obtained deepen the understanding of the processes of formation and transformation of the identity of combatants, which is important for understanding the problems of their subsequent integration into civil society.

About the authors

Sergey Vyacheslavovich Startsev

HSE University

Email: sstartsev@hse.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8152-1817
Graduate Student, Social Institutes Analysis Department, School of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences Moscow, Russia

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