Description
This paper draws on feminist ontological security and military studies to discuss the implications of gendered representation of the military on government social media. It focuses on the Instagram and Twitter accounts of the Japan Ministry of Defense (MOD), and the representation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) therein. In MOD’s traditional campaigns, female personnel are overrepresented, infantilised, and sexualised, aiming to make the military look ‘cuter’ and acceptable, displacing militarism with kawaii representations. On social media, female personnel are instead under-represented, but they are portrayed as professional. Still, they never engage in violent activities, and they often smile reassuringly. This contrasts with a representation of male personnel as focused and armed soldiers. In this paper, I argue that the non-fictional nature of social media allows for both redefining and reproducing gendered military representations. By applying an ontological security framework, I argue that this gendered representation of ‘masculine’ strength and ‘feminine’ benevolence is part of the government’s effort to normalise the JSDF. This is particularly effective on social media, whose affective and unexceptional features enable vicarious identification with the everyday lives of military personnel. Therefore, I argue that social media can make militarism more desirable through personal identification with the military.
