Editing Nationalism (section)

=== Gendered and muscular ===
{{main|Nationalism and gender}}
Feminist critique interprets nationalism as a mechanism through which sexual control and repression are justified and legitimized, often by a dominant masculine power. The [[gender]]ing of nationalism through socially constructed notions of [[masculinity]] and [[femininity]] not only shapes what masculine and feminine participation in the building of that nation will look like, but also how the nation will be imagined by nationalists.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Banerjee|first=Sikata|title=Gender and nationalism: the masculinization of hinduism and female political participation in india|journal=Women's Studies International Forum|volume=26|issue=2|pages=167–179|doi=10.1016/s0277-5395(03)00019-0 |year=2003}}</ref> A nation having its own identity is viewed as necessary, and often inevitable, and these identities are gendered.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Mackay|first=Eva|date=2000|title=Death by Landscape: Race, Nature and Gender in the Canadian Nationalist Mythology |url=http://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/7618/6749|journal=Canadian Woman Studies|volume=20|pages=125–130|via=Journals.Yorku |access-date=17 November 2017|archive-date=12 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012014631/https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/7618/6749|url-status=live}}</ref> The physical land itself is often gendered as female (i.e. "Motherland"), with a body in constant danger of violation by foreign males, while national pride and protectiveness of "her" borders is gendered as masculine.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Woman and War Reader |last=Peterson |first=Spike V. |publisher=New York University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0814751459 |editor-last=Turpin |editor-first=Jennifer |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenwarreader00lore_0/page/41 41–49] |chapter=Gendered nationalism: Reproducing "Us" versus "Them" |editor-last2=Lorentzen |editor-first2=Lois Ann |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womenwarreader00lore_0/page/41}}</ref>

[[File:US Patriotic Army Recruiting Poster WW2 Then Now Forever.jpg|thumb|upright|World War II United States Patriotic Army Recruiting Poster]]
History, political ideologies, and religions place most nations along a continuum of muscular nationalism.<ref name=":5" /> Muscular nationalism conceptualizes a nation's identity as being derived from muscular or masculine attributes that are unique to a particular country.<ref name=":5" /> If definitions of nationalism and gender are understood as socially and culturally constructed, the two may be constructed in conjunction by invoking an [[Ingroups and outgroups|"us" versus "them" dichotomy]] for the purpose of the exclusion of the so-called "other," who is used to reinforce the unifying ties of the nation.<ref name=":4" /> The empowerment of one gender, nation or sexuality tends to occur at the expense and disempowerment of another; in this way, nationalism can be used as an instrument to perpetuate [[Heteronormativity|heteronormative]] structures of power.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gender Ironies of Nationalism|last=Mayer|first=Tamar|publisher=Psychology Press|year=2000}}</ref> The gendered manner in which dominant nationalism has been imagined in most states in the world has had important implications on not only individual's lived experience, but on international relations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Robidoux|first=Michael A.|date=2002|title=Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|volume=115|issue=456|pages=209–225 |doi=10.2307/4129220|jstor=4129220}}</ref> [[Colonialism]] has historically been heavily intertwined with muscular nationalism, from research linking [[hegemonic masculinity]] and empire-building,<ref name=":4" /> to [[Intersectionality|intersectional]] oppression being justified by colonialist images of the "other", a practice integral in the formation of Western identity.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Orientalism |last=Said |first=Edward |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1979 |isbn=978-0394740676 |location=New York |pages=1–368}}</ref> This "othering" may come in the form of [[orientalism]], whereby the East is [[Feminization (sociology)|feminized]] and [[sexualized]] by the West. The imagined feminine East, or "other," exists in contrast to the masculine West.

The status of conquered nations can become a causality dilemma: the nation was "conquered because they were effeminate and seen as effeminate because they were conquered."<ref name=":4" /> In defeat they are considered militaristically unskilled, not aggressive, and thus not muscular. In order for a nation to be considered "proper", it must possess the male-gendered characteristics of virility, as opposed to the stereotypically female characteristics of subservience and dependency.<ref name=":5" /> Muscular nationalism is often inseparable from the concept of a [[warrior]], which shares [[Ideology|ideological]] commonalities across many nations; they are defined by the masculine notions of aggression, willingness to engage in war, decisiveness, and muscular strength, as opposed to the feminine notions of peacefulness, weakness, non-violence, and compassion.<ref name=":4" /> This masculinized image of a warrior has been theorized to be "the culmination of a series of gendered historical and social processes" played out in a national and international context.<ref name=":4" /> Ideas of cultural dualism—of a martial man and chaste woman—which are implicit in muscular nationalism, underline the [[Race (human categorization)|raced]], [[Social class|classed]], [[gender]]ed, and [[Heteronormativity|heteronormative]] nature of dominant national identity.<ref name=":5" />

Nations and gender systems are mutually supportive [[Social constructionism|constructions]]: the nation fulfils the masculine ideals of comradeship and brotherhood.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Waetjen|first=Thembisa|date=2001|title=The Limits of Gender Rhetoric for Nationalism: A Case Study from Southern Africa|journal=Theory and Society|volume=30|issue=1|pages=121–152|doi=10.1023/a:1011099627847|jstor=658064|s2cid=142868365}}</ref> Masculinity has been cited as a notable factor in producing political militancy.<ref name=":6" /> A common feature of national crisis is a drastic shift in the socially acceptable ways of being a man,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alison|first=Miranda|date=2007|title=Wartime Sexual Violence: Women's Human Rights and Questions of Masculinity|jstor=20097951|journal=Review of International Studies|volume=33|issue=1|pages=75–90|doi=10.1017/s0260210507007310|s2cid=2332633|url=<!-- Disable Citation_bot. Dead link: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/953/1/WRAP_Alison_Wartime_sexual.pdf -->}}</ref> which then helps to shape the gendered perception of the nation as a whole.