Military training depends on the denigration of anything considered feminine - to act like a soldier is to not be ‘womanly’. This image of a soldier is related to the protection myth - the soldier as a just warrior, self-sacrificially protecting women, children, and other vulnerable people. The idea that young men fight wars to protect these vulnerable groups who cannot be expected to protect themselves has been an important motivator for the recruitment of military forces. It has also helped sustain support for war by both women and men. In wartime, the just warrior who displays heroic masculine characteristics is often contrasted with an enemy who is portrayed as dangerous often through the use of feminized and sometimes racialized characteristics. This serves as further support for the need for protection. For example, entry into the US-led war in Afghanistan was partially justified as a heroic intervention on behalf of presumably helpless Afghani women. The Taliban response was also shaped by gendered justifications of protecting ‘their’ women from outside influence. Both sides in the conflict further justified their positions through the use of feminized imagery of the other.
J. Ann Tickner (‘Gender in world politics’), on the protection myth
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