Description
This paper examines an understudied dimension of youth militarisation in Putin’s wartime Russia: the ways that stereotypical ideas about masculinities and femininities are reproduced in practices and discourses. All forms of youth militarisation target boys and girls, young men and young women, and at first glance all youth are given the same opportunities and exposed to the same messages about the glories of war and the importance of the armed forces to defend Russia and Russians. But a close examination of the discourses constructed around the heroic behaviour of war veterans and war survivors that are communicated to youth reveal distinctly gendered features that send very different signals to young men and young women about the kind of war-related activities that they would be expected to participate in.
