https://vimeo.com/381772066
A three minute excerpt from a twenty minute film and sound piece in which I contest representations of violence, power and gender. The film excerpt originally accompanied a performed monologue, a summary of which follows:
In a 2019 reality television show, SAS recruit, Louise challenged SAS recruit, Nathan to a fight. Nathan punched Louise in the head. The task was described as an exercise in equality. In 2016 women were invited to take up what the British Ministry of Defence called, ‘close with and kill the enemy’ fighting roles. The MOD said these changes demonstrated equal opportunities. In the same year the cultural theorist Victoria Basham wrote, ‘the relationship between armed force and masculinities is possibly the most salient and cross-culturally stable aspect of gendered politics.’ But are these representations either stable or entrenched?
This piece outlines an interdisciplinary enquiry, that critiques the ways in which ideologies of equality and inclusion are co-opted for the promotion of military force. It further considers themes of power and subordination and an associated eroticisation of male and female bodies with a context of state controlled violence.
