‘I’m a man, but it’s not what people usually think’: conscientious objectors challenging militarized masculinity in Finland

Conscientious objection remains underexplored in scholarship on the intersections of war, militarism, and masculinities, despite its potential to unsettle dominant gendered logics of militarization. This article addresses this gap by examining how militarized masculinity operates within the Finnish context – a nation often perceived as peaceful and committed to gender equality, yet where male conscription remains tied to Finnish manhood and entangled with gendered expectations. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 10 Finnish conscientious objectors, the article investigates how these individuals position themselves both within and in resistance to hegemonic masculine norms. The objectors’ accounts demonstrate the way militarized masculinity asserts its hegemony through gendered stigma, particularly via homophobic taunts directed at their refusal. Concurrently, their reflections on the potential heroic connotations imbued in their refusal highlight how their anti-militarist narratives not only destabilize the dominance of militarized masculinity but also point to the emergence of alternative masculinities oriented towards gender justice. By illuminating how their ambivalent positionality – whose masculinities are subordinated yet occupy male privilege – engage with the military and militarism, this article contributes to an understanding of masculinities beyond traditional associations with violence, offering a nuanced perspective on gendered militarism and resistance to it.