Gendering Nations

Gendering Nations Synopsis

In this book, muscular nationalism—a specific intersection of armed masculinity and nation—explores the manner in which nations are gendered. This view of nation relies on a martial man who protects the nation and the chaste woman who both reflects national honor and provides a moral ideal for proper womanhood in the nation.

The book draws on secondary literature, cultural expressions encompassing film and social media, and public spectacles (i.e. sporting events, independence day celebrations, and cultural events to celebrate national unity) to argue that muscular nationalism, with some cultural variation, is a dominant global interpretation of nation.

The empirical evidence will be drawn from a variety of national contexts (representing the major continents of the world) and shaped by a range of colonial experiences: settler colonialism, extractive colonialism, and those that were not directly colonized.