Between Civilian and Military Masculinities and Exceptionalism in Humanitarian Memoir

This chapter explores humanitarian masculinities through an analysis of humanitarian memoirs. It highlights three different but connected facets of masculinity that operate in the memoirs. Firstly, the ways in which humanitarian masculinities both owe a debt to and are constructed in contradistinction to military masculinities. Secondly, a cosmopolitan adventurer masculinity which draws on travel writing as well as martial connections. Finally, it highlights the ways the memoirs present a solely heterosexual masculinity and the implications of this for how women aid workers are presented and other masculinities are obscured. The chapter argues that memoirs offer us important insights into the cultures of masculinity that dominate the aid sector.