homophobic discrimination in military contexts: foucauldian dimensions of analysis
Military homophobia. Sexuality device. Disciplinary power.
Under the pretext of cohesion and emphasis on discipline, homophobia perpetrated in military institutions legitimizes and accentuates the exclusion of homosexuality, according to a reiterated process in which veiled prohibitions give way to series of punishments and persecutions directed at homosexual military personnel. Faced with this problem, the goal of this research is to analyze practices, discourses, and knowledge that permeate military homophobia. To this end, in addition to the historical-critical perspective on the expression of homophobia, we revisit the contributions of Michel Foucault on social and discursive control for the production of homosexuality, as well as the exercise of disciplinary power in the military microcosm for the production of subjectivity. We also mobilize concepts related to queer studies, which underline the primacy of devices that continuously inscribe masculinity and sexuality in a heteronormative dynamic. It is argued that, although military homophobia operates from repressive mechanisms, its effectiveness lies in a productive condition about the figure of the homosexual, who is, paradoxically, preserved within these institutions as a threat to the homosocial male bond. Methodologically, the study operates from the discourse analysis derived from the considerations offered by Foucault and Fairclough. The contribution of this research is in making visible (and reducing the gap on) a theme still lacking reflections in the field of national critical organizational studies.