Cyborg warriors and technomasculinity: whiteness, masculinity and authority in arms manufacturers' social media

This presentation is part of a wider project examining the social media output of three of the world's largest arms manufacturers by profit (as determined by the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research): Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. A snapshot approach was taken, examining all tweets sent within a three-month period in 2019. This presentation builds on earlier work from the same project, which examines women and neoliberal feminism in arms manufacturers' social media posts. In this presentation, I aim to explore the ways in which the positioning of technology as rationality is linked to white masculinity (D’Arcangelis 2015) in this case. I firstly demonstrate that these tweets invoke a type of Cyborg masculinity (Haraway 1985) through the portrayal of cameras on UAVs, meteorological imaging systems, and microphones located within fighter jets, and more. All of this technology makes the user more powerful but also grants emotional distance from potential violence they might cause. The presentation then explores the ways in which an emphasis upon technical knowledge (aircraft specifications, space technology) positions these companies – and those who follow them – as holders of masculine authority