This article tells the story of how pepper spray disrupted the everyday ways of being military men in a Swedish Armed Forces unit. It aims to show how military men are done and undone in the context of a highly strenuous military exercise. It is based on an ethnographic study carried out in a Swedish international service unit. The analysis shows how the exercise taught the soldiers how to behave as military men. Furthermore, it discusses the intimate forms of camaraderie that the soldiers practice and problematizes the scene of constraint that compulsory heterosexuality constitutes for their homosocial bonds. Theoretically, the article draws upon studies of men and masculinities and employs the concepts of homosociality and compulsory heterosexuality. By developing “repair work” as an analytical tool, it contributes to an understanding of how masculinities are done within, as well as beyond, the military context.
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