Description
Scholars in Ontological Security Studies (OSS) have increasingly afforded more attention to dynamics of status-seeking in the formation of subjectivity, and to the gendered nature of auto-biographical narratives. While both theoretical moves are important, the interconnection between these two strands of scholarship remain relatively underexplored, thus limiting our understanding of how the formation of gendered subjectivities is impacted by longing for status in heteronormative spaces of recognition. This paper seeks to enhance gendered approaches to ontological (in)security by showing how heteronormativity and recognition shape subject-formation processes. By bringing together the literature on status-seeking, ontological (in)security and post-structural feminism, it argues that collective subjects (states) articulate their status-seeking quests and subjectivity in response to domestic and international hierarchies of recognition. Empirically, the paper focuses on Japanese policymakers’ articulation of state subjectivity and anxieties of being a ‘tier-two country’ since the postwar era. Through an analysis of the different performances of masculinity advocated by different Prime Ministers, the paper argues that these represent a quest for more ‘conforming’ articulations of great power masculinity in international politics.
