This presentation is from the Discussion Leader Training of the Justice and War: The Experiences of Military Personnel and their Families Program. The ”Justice and War: The Experiences of Military Personnel and their Families” program works with veterans, active service members, their families, and civilians to explore the relationship between the lived experience of war and concepts of justice. The program puts participants’ own experiences in dialogue with the past through discussion prompts that flesh out the concept of justice through themes such as duty, heroism, suffering, loyalty, and patriotism. This program was made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1. War, Citizenship, and Masculinity
Dr. Amy J. Rutenberg
Associate Professor of History
Iowa State University
arutenbe@iastate.edu

2. Point 1: War and gender
are mutually constitutive
Ideals of gender,
including both masculinity and femininity,
shape war and are shaped by war

3. Jan van der
Straet,
The Discovery of
America, 1575

4. Point 2: Modern Americans
are usually pretty familiar
with martial masculinity
The idea that war is inherently masculine, and, in fact,
it builds men by fostering strength, toughness,
independence, heroism, virility, etc.

5. Udo J. Keppler, Puck, July 13, 1898
Postcard, American Soldiers, early 20th Century
The War of 1898

6. Herbert Paus, ca. 1918
Richard Babcock, 1917
World War I

7. McClelland Barclay, 1942
Navy Recruiting Bureau
Tom Woodburn, 1943
World War II

8. The Vietnam War

9. Point 3: Martial
masculinity is often used
to shore up domestic
masculinity
Johnson, Riddle & Co., Ltd
Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, [1915]

12. Point 4: In the
Modern US, martial
masculinity is deeply
connected to
concepts of
citizenship

13. Think about how we define “deserving”
Why can military
service fast track US
citizenship?
Why do soldiers
receive benefits that
other Americans do
not?
Why do military
benefits accrue to
whole families?
How have minoritized
people used veteran
status to argue for
equal rights?
How has veteran
status been used to
legitimate political
stances?

14. Point 5: But US
citizenship has
never been
predicated on
military service
The Militia Act of 1792 was
closest but also riddled
with loopholes
“The Battle of
Lexington, April 19,
1775,” by Amos
Doolittle, 1775

15. Point 6:
Martial
masculinity
is complex,
varies by
group, and
changes
over time

16. Point 7: Martial masculinity is not
the only masculinity available,
even in wartime

17. Harold Gauer,
“Photo of the
Group in
Costume: Result
of the Draft.”
Photo courtesy of the
Wisconsin Historical
Society

18. Emory Douglas,
1969
Baez sisters,
1968

19. Point 8: Even the federal government
does not always privilege martial
masculinity in wartime

20. Ex. Selective Service deferments
during the Cold War defined men
in certain civilian occupations
and breadwinning fatherhood as
performing national service on
par with military service
In other words, to the Selective
Service, domestic forms of
masculinity were just as
important (if not more
important) than martial
masculinity
Bomb Shelter,
Photo courtesy of the
Minnesota Historical Society

21. Selected Cold
War Draft
Classifications
• I-A – Available for military service
• I-O/I-A-O – Conscientious Objector
classifications
• I-Y – Unqualified for military service except
in national emergency
• II-A – Deferred for non-agricultural
occupation
• II-C – Deferred for agricultural occupation
• II-S – Deferred as student for higher
education
• III-A – Deferred for dependency or hardship
• IV-F – Rejected for military service for
physical, mental, or moral reasons

22. Kruchshev and Nixon,
Kitchen Debate,
Moscow, 1959

24. Gordon Parks, “The
Fontanelles at the
Poverty Board,”
1967
Meanwhile, a
whole different
set of policies
targeted poor
white men and all
men of color for
military service.
(Project 100,000
was 40% Black.)
Their purpose
was to
“rehabilitate”
supposedly
subpar men so
they could be
better
breadwinners
(i.e. real men)
after discharge.

25. Thank you!
arutenbe@iastate.edu