Managing Femininity Through Visual Embodiment: The Portrayal of Women on the Instagram Accounts of the Swedish and the Swiss Armed Forces

Abstract

As a gendered organisation, the military’s organisational identity is based, among other things, on what is considered as stereotypic masculinity: strong, brave, and tough men represent the ideal warrior. The increasing number of female soldiers threatens this part of the organisational identity. Social media such as Instagram serves as a means to reflect organisational identity. Therefore, the following contribution examines how the armed forces deal with the gendered nature of the military by comparing the portrayal of women on the Instagram profiles of the Swedish and the Swiss Armed Forces. In consideration of the societal context as well as both countries’ military characteristics, we analyse whether gender stereotypes in the military are highlighted or reduced and how the female body is treated in relation to military identity. A visual content analysis of the Instagram posts from 2018 reveals that women are portrayed in stereotypical masculine roles in the case of the Swedish Armed Forces, whereas the Instagram pictures of the Swiss Armed Forces portraying women highlight stereotypical female attributes.