Description
Although the consequences of drone warfare on counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and civilians have been researched, its relation to military personnel and the practice of soldiering remains at early stages of exploration.
This research raises the question: How are militarized masculinities of military pilots cinematically represented in popular culture in the context of drone warfare? Following a critical visual methodology informed by a poststructural feminist insights, the research conducts a film analysis of two US-American movies, Good Kill (2015) and Top Gun: Mavericks (2022).
The analysis deploys close yet complementary methods: narrative and (visual) discourse analysis. It emerges as a result that male fighter jet pilots are represented as embodying a hegemonic form of militarized masculinity despite the existential threat posed by the unmanned turned of warfare. In contrast, military pilots engaged in drone warfare do not uphold their associations to hegemonic forms of militarised masculinities. Through their interaction with drone technology, they are effectively feminized and emasculated. The findings have broader implications for military recruitment strategies, but also for a growing number of militaries and security actors turning toward semi-automated technologies, and the support and acceptability thereof in the context of increasing militarization in Western societies.
