“A little taste of what it would be like to be in the military”: Performing militarism at the Canada army run

Abstract

While significant attention has been paid to the perpetuation of pro-military ideology via discourse and political practice, less attention has been paid to the role of the body in (re)producing militarism. Drawing on 40 interviews with primarily civilian Canada Army Run participants, I argue that militarism is reproduced in part via civilians’ embodied performances. Performances of militarism allow participants to feel and thus reproduce militarism through the body. Performances of military support allow participants to orient themselves toward the military in a way that reproduces pro-military mythologies and situates the performer socially as national subjects who appropriately exalt the military (and are thus deserving of exaltation in turn), binding participants together and reaffirming social bonds created via shared love of the military. Ultimately, performances of militarism reify the military as exalted, insulating it from critical consideration by the public.