Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Embodying Military Muscles and a Remasculinized West : Influencer Marketing, Fantasy and “the Face of NATO”

Hedling, Elsa LU ; Edenborg, Emil LU and Strand, Sanna (2022) In Global Studies Quarterly 2(1).
Abstract
In 2018, NATO carried out Trident Juncture, its largest military exercise since the Cold War. The event was promoted on social media featuring Lasse Matberg as “the face of NATO”. Matberg is an Instagram influencer, model and lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy, with an impressive physique and Viking looks. He frequently appears on NATOs social media accounts and lends his own platform to share activities such as working out with the Secretary-General. Drawing on the notion of “fantasmatic logics” (Glynos and Howarth 2007), we study how visual narratives of influencer marketing can contribute to make war preparations appear normal, void of political significance and even desirable. The figure of Lasse Matberg is read in conjunction with... (More)
In 2018, NATO carried out Trident Juncture, its largest military exercise since the Cold War. The event was promoted on social media featuring Lasse Matberg as “the face of NATO”. Matberg is an Instagram influencer, model and lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy, with an impressive physique and Viking looks. He frequently appears on NATOs social media accounts and lends his own platform to share activities such as working out with the Secretary-General. Drawing on the notion of “fantasmatic logics” (Glynos and Howarth 2007), we study how visual narratives of influencer marketing can contribute to make war preparations appear normal, void of political significance and even desirable. The figure of Lasse Matberg is read in conjunction with international rearmament and increasing geopolitical antagonism bound up with ideas of “traditional masculinity” and “feminization”. We argue that the muscular yet ambiguously “soft” figure of Lasse Matberg projects a symbolic re-masculinization of the West, operating through a fantasmatic logic which seemingly reconciles the contradiction between a West which is imperial and militarily muscular on the one hand, and caring, democratic and progressive on the other. By shedding light on NATO’s use of influencer marketing to promote a military exercise, this paper contributes novel insights into the ways in which the figure of the NATO soldier and NATO military build-up are produced as appealing, allowing an ambivalent gendered geopolitical imaginary to emerge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Global Studies Quarterly
volume
2
issue
1
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85128464895
ISSN
2634-3797
DOI
10.1093/isagsq/ksac010
project
Social Information and Hybrid Power: A Strategic Platform for Political Communication at Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
498400b3-d5e2-4959-a761-1732780fa77b
date added to LUP
2022-01-30 14:27:18
date last changed
2023-10-19 04:00:11
@article{498400b3-d5e2-4959-a761-1732780fa77b,
  abstract     = {{In 2018, NATO carried out Trident Juncture, its largest military exercise since the Cold War. The event was promoted on social media featuring Lasse Matberg as “the face of NATO”. Matberg is an Instagram influencer, model and lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy, with an impressive physique and Viking looks. He frequently appears on NATOs social media accounts and lends his own platform to share activities such as working out with the Secretary-General. Drawing on the notion of “fantasmatic logics” (Glynos and Howarth 2007), we study how visual narratives of influencer marketing can contribute to make war preparations appear normal, void of political significance and even desirable. The figure of Lasse Matberg is read in conjunction with international rearmament and increasing geopolitical antagonism bound up with ideas of “traditional masculinity” and “feminization”. We argue that the muscular yet ambiguously “soft” figure of Lasse Matberg projects a symbolic re-masculinization of the West, operating through a fantasmatic logic which seemingly reconciles the contradiction between a West which is imperial and militarily muscular on the one hand, and caring, democratic and progressive on the other. By shedding light on NATO’s use of influencer marketing to promote a military exercise, this paper contributes novel insights into the ways in which the figure of the NATO soldier and NATO military build-up are produced as appealing, allowing an ambivalent gendered geopolitical imaginary to emerge.}},
  author       = {{Hedling, Elsa and Edenborg, Emil and Strand, Sanna}},
  issn         = {{2634-3797}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Global Studies Quarterly}},
  title        = {{Embodying Military Muscles and a Remasculinized West : Influencer Marketing, Fantasy and “the Face of NATO”}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksac010}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/isagsq/ksac010}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}