Australian Army Journal

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GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Cohesion, Masculinity and Combat Motivation: Designing Personnel Policy to Sustain Capability None of these observations remotely constitutes an argument that women cannot fight or bond; indeed a reduced female predisposition to testosterone-driven irrational aggression or loss of fine motor skills may enable superior performance in modern war. 35 However, it does suggest that both biology and sociology help explain why men may bond differently and more readily than women and why bonding is fundamentally linked to notions of masculinity and its exaggerated form, hyper-masculinity. Hyper-masculinity Across time and place, militaries have exploited ‘hyper-masculine’ behaviour 36 as a mechanism to generate both cohesion 37 and the aggression required to overcome inhibitions and reliably kill at close quarters. 38 It is ‘abnormal conduct for abnormal’ effects. Hyper-masculinity is particularly associated with elite infantry units because it is a proven tool for sustaining the offensive culture required for conventional war. Rosen et al. have also shown such hyper-masculinity to be associated with ‘greater vertical and horizontal cohesion and readiness’ across many types of unit because it supports psychological readiness for combat. 39 Exaggerated sexuality may play a role by altering hormone levels. Certainly, primitive tribal societies used sexual arousal to motivate their warriors 40 and Roberts has controversially argued that the US Army deliberately exploited sexual hyper-masculinity and myth to motivate troops after D-day. 41 Woods cites anthropologist Lionel Tiger as proposing that, in military groups, stereotypically sexually-referenced humour, posturing, language and name-calling combines with roughhousing to raise testosterone levels as a process of displaying and testing psychological fitness to fight and build a ‘tough aggressive self-image for the soldier’ and the group. 42 As described earlier, the group is regulated not only by demanding exaggerated masculine traits but by seeking out and condemning those that the group conceptualises as nonmasculine: currently this uses misogynistic labels such as ‘feminine’ as well as homophobic ones such as ‘gay’, but historically hyper-masculinity has also been conceived as homosexual, most famously by the Spartans. Group repression of the non-masculine inevitably decreases male acceptance of women: in practice it is often hostile, as illustrated by Wadham’s description of a 1980s Australian infantry culture, based on his service in 2/4 RAR, that denigrates the feminine and females. 43 A zero-tolerance approach to harassment has curbed blatant misogyny, but overt sexuality remains part of the contemporary masculine military environment. Flood’s study of ADFA cadets found that ‘sexual activity is a key path to masculine status … other men are the audience … Heterosexual sex can be a medium for male bonding.’ 44 This is hardly different from any social Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 64
GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Cohesion, Masculinity and Combat Motivation: Designing Personnel Policy to Sustain Capability grouping in which young men are a majority (an engineering faculty for example). The boundary between normal assertive male sexuality and unacceptable antifemale behaviour is difficult to define. Nevertheless, the Army has far more at stake, and simply prohibiting clearly unacceptable behaviour does not create a femalefriendly environment. The Chief of Army has mandated a fundamental attitudinal shift and it is difficult to see how this can be achieved without addressing hypermasculinity and modifying the established training and culture of combat units. There may be other reasons to ‘de-masculinise’ military culture, particularly the need to avoid overreaction in contemporary complex conflict. For example, the macho culture of the Parachute Regiment has been implicated in the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in (London) Derry that massively shifted local Northern Irish Nationalist opinion towards armed resistance to the British Army. 45 The dilemma for the senior Army leadership is that a hyper-masculine culture is probably both a barrier to gender integration and a risk in counterinsurgency, yet remains a proven cohesion tool in conventional war. For example, the ‘Para’ culture that was counterproductive in Northern Ireland won remarkable battles in the Falklands in 1982. Despite officer and non-commissioned officer casualties, sustained teamlevel aggression by junior Para soldiers overcame greatly superior forces and well-prepared defences. Given that conventional war is the primary task of the Army, before one cohesion-enabling culture is dismantled an alternative needs to be embedded. There is fierce academic debate over how cohesion is built. 46 Although hypermasculinity is strongly associated with cohesion and combat effectiveness, few military sociologists regard it as essential. Many are critical of exclusive male bonding based on collective rituals of drinking, fighting and sex, 47 arguing that cohesion is, or can be, built largely through ‘drills and training’ and in a ‘standard model’ based on ‘trust and teamwork’. 48 The more demanding the performance standards achieved, the higher the self-image and mutual confidence and trust of members, but also the higher the standard the individual must attain in order to maintain reputation. This is the approach used by many Special Forces. 49 There seems to be no reason cohesion cannot be built along non-gendered lines in mixed units with reputation primarily referenced against concepts of professionalism. However, if an effective non-gendered cohesion model exists, it has yet to be proven by a mixed combat unit in high-intensity, sustained conventional battle. Virtually all female participation in combat has been within masculine military cultures. 50 Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 65
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Australian Army Culture edition 201
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CONTENTS CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD....
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD When I assum
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD her gender,
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EDITORIAL the way in which it deals
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HISTORY Serving Their Country: A Sh
Page 13 and 14: HISTORY Serving Their Country: A Sh
Page 23 and 24: HISTORY ‘A Homosexual Institution
Page 41 and 42: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Steyrs and She
Page 59 and 60: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Coh
Page 63: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Coh
Page 79 and 80: RELIGION Religious Diversity in the
Page 97 and 98: IDENTITY Military Retirement: Refle
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DISCIPLINE Hazing in the ADF: A Cul
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OPERATIONAL CULTURE The Myths of Cu
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Securing Arm
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Learning to
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Family Frien
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE From Institu
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Warrant Off
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Pride As RS
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Mateship ca
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Our people
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OPINION Army’s Spirit I think it
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OPINION Brothers and Sisters in Arm
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OPINION On the Culture of the Austr
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OPINION Fifty Shades of Grey: Offic
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS NOTES FOR CO
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