La objeción de conciencia y el cuidado como antídoto al militarismo: una mirada desde la Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia - ACOOC

Abstract

Among the various problems that arise in highly militarized societies, it is possible to identify the normalization of practices, values, and mandates that, while serving militarism, also have an impact on various social, cultural, and even economic and political spheres. In addition, certain specific configurations emerge in which gender roles, the value of femininity, and especially masculinity are inscribed. This directly and ruthlessly links being a man to the exercise of warfare, which is developed through strength, uncritical obedience, the nullification of emotions, and a constant willingness to take risks, engage in violence, and participate in armed confrontation. These demands of what it should mean to be a man have been promoted by hegemonic discourses, which have been responsible for making invisible the multiple possibilities in which masculinity can be expressed, denying care and empathy for oneself and others, and fostering impediments to disobeying patriarchal, violent, and hierarchical mandates. In this vein, the following approach seeks to analyze the relationship between conscientious objection and the emergence of caring masculinities as generators of practices that disobey the construction and reinforcement of militarized masculinity. To this end, the research draws on the experience of the Collective Action of Conscientious Objectors (ACOC), which for years has been accompanying young people who refuse to go to war and continue to reproduce practices that militarize their lives. Through research, educational, communicative, legal, and psychosocial actions, this organization has promoted the recognition of nonviolence, antimilitarism, and caring masculinities as alternatives to militarism. We recognize conscientious objection as a legal and constitutionally supported act, but also as an ethical and political stance that challenges the established structures of militarism and patriarchy. It is in this disobedience that we find the emergence of practices and discourses that position care as a way of challenging the hegemonic hierarchies that have been assigned to masculinities. The political value of care is recognized in the construction of alternatives that do not reproduce the violent logics that have been naturalized and reproduced in our society, permeating our relationships, bodies, and lives. Finally, we seek to contribute to the reflection on how masculinities can be transformed to build a society geared toward justice, empathy, and care, in which dependence on violent structures and uncritical obedience is overcome and, instead, relationships based on dignity and justice are built.