ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how sports and militarism function symbiotically to reinforce national identity, the parameters of citizenship, and hegemonic masculinity. It presents a comparative analysis of the histories surrounding sex verification in international sports and exclusionary practices associated with military operations. The social significance of sex verification is amplified when sex segregation cannot be fortified through physical isolation or radically dissimilar event formats. Although this comparative analysis focuses specifically on the history of exclusionary practices within the US Armed Services, the chapter argues that this history epitomizes the ways in which Western Manhood and, by extension, Western Nationhood are intrinsically dependent upon the pervasive exclusion and policing of female bodies. It also argues that both sex verification and combat exclusion employ female Otherness and the rhetoric of "justness" in ways that only police female bodies but also reify the sanctity of Western Manhood.
