From Draft NOtices, April-June 2023
- Lauren Reyna Morales
Fiscal year 2022 marked a period of record low recruitment levels for the United States Armed Forces. All military branches struggled to reach their benchmarks. The Army alone missed recruiting goals by about 15,000 new soldiers, coming up 25 percent short for the fiscal year. To put the recruitment “crisis” into perspective, the military has not experienced such a problem enrolling new members since 1973, when the draft officially ended. So, why isn’t Generation Z interested in joining the military? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask.
Many conservative officials and veterans have claimed the military going “woke” has turned today’s youth off from enlisting. Proponents of this rationale blame diversity, inclusion, and racial bias trainings adopted by the armed forces as a cause for declining recruitment numbers. According to Military Times, Thomas Spoehr, director of the conservative Heritage Foundation, lamented, “Is anyone surprised that potential recruits -- many of whom come from rural or poor areas of the country -- don’t want to spend their time being lectured about white privilege?” And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed this viewpoint in an opinion column for Fox News last September. He asked, “How can we ask young men and women who have decided to risk their lives for America, even die for America, to affirm that our country is inherently racist?”
While the right-wing relentlessly promotes the “going woke” explanation, Gen Z provides quite a different answer when asked about their lack of interest in the armed forces. The Associated Press recently surveyed thousands of 16 to 28-year-olds about their attitudes towards enlisting. According to the data, reasons why young people aren’t interested in military service are, in order: “fear of death; worries about post-traumatic stress disorder; and leaving friends and family. Outside of those top three reasons, the biggest concern is ‘putting my life on hold’” (MSNBNC). This AP survey, commissioned by the Army and carried out by a private researcher, challenges the claim about “wokeism” souring youth on the idea of serving in the military. The truth is, young people are increasingly aware of the many downsides to being in the military and are simply more interested in living life on their own terms.
Ensuring a steady stream of youthful bodies into the military is fundamental to maintaining the operation of the U.S. war machine. Plummeting enlistment rates have caused conservative officials to publicly “question the sustainability of the all-volunteer force” (NBC News). Over the last few years, Defense Department officials asserted that Gen Z “must be galvanized to see the value of serving their country and the benefits of the military” (Stars and Stripes). There is no question the institution is working overtime as it seeks new covert ways to reach would-be enrollees and disseminate pro-military propaganda catered to an increasingly disinterested generation.
Defense Department officials want to exploit the power of social media to improve enlistment numbers, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone who is educated on the ruthless tactics of military recruitment. The internet is the perfect place for the U.S. military to engage with young people with little restriction and to present their target audience with intentionally crafted advertisements. In 2019, the military conducted studies on how to make better use of online platforms, learning that “the Army’s social media accounts and recruiting websites aren’t just a way to connect with potential soldiers, it’s also a testing ground that offers more ways to learn about different audiences and their reactions to specific forms of content” (Army Times). Officials stated to a Senate panel in September 2022 that “the Pentagon should harness the power of social media and influencers to change young peoples’ perception of the military and entice them to enlist amid a challenging recruitment environment” (Stars and Stripes). The Army has even invited social media influencers to D.C. to learn firsthand how to best captivate their intended audience. “Every soldier is a brand ambassador… and we want to learn from our soldiers who are communicating effectively,” remarked a defense official (Task and Purpose).
Using psychological operations and sexualized persona to recruit
The Defense Department’s propaganda dreams seem to have been answered by the growing phenomenon of so-called Army e-girls. An e-girl (short for “electronic girl”) is a term that broadly references a young woman who has a strong, calculated presence on the internet, specifically on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. E-girls typically bring a highly sexualized persona to their online content in an attempt to amass an adoring fanbase. Who better to garner Gen-Z’s attention online than a beautiful young woman who playfully and sensually promotes militarism on the most popular social media platforms? What a terrific opportunity for the armed forces to rebrand their narrative and cleanse their rotting reputation with young people!
Hailey Lujan, known simply as Lujan (loo-han), is the quintessential Army e-girl. Lujan, a self-described “psychological operations specialist” (Dazed Digital), is actually employed by the U.S. Army psychological operations (psyops) division. At around 20-years-old, she boasts over 677,000 followers on TikTok and her videos have millions of views and likes. Dressed in army fatigues and often posing with an assault rifle, Lujan posts a steady stream of sexualized military imagery. In a recent TikTok, Lujan urged her followers not to go to college and to become a “soldier instead” (Dazed Digital). She accompanies her posts with hashtags like “#pewpew and #military curves” (Dazed Digital). The young influencer has even posted photos with prominent conservative figures like Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and former U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn by her side.
Lujan’s online presence has gotten a lot of attention in the last year. She has received thousands of comments from young male followers like “I’m joining the military,” “She’s so fine,” and “I was just thinking of joining, what unit, branch, base are you in?” While she clearly has fans, not all of her recognition has been positive. According to Dazed Digital, countless memes have circulated the internet “speculating that she is a post-ironic psy-op meant to recruit people into the U.S. Army,” and with many TikTok users commenting things like “ITS PROPAGANDA!”, that she’s the “most obvious fed,” and pleading with others “DON’T FALL FOR IT.” Lujan has not only embraced her label as the enlistment baiting psy-op Army e-girl, she revels in the online persona that she’s created. In February, she uploaded a series of photos on Instagram in response to Dazed Digital’s article “How e-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military.” She tagged her post’s location as “US Army Recruiting and Retention College” and interacted with a series of comments that praised her as a successful enlistment tactic. Lujan embraces the influential power her pro-military posts possess. She even insinuated on TikTok last October that her social media alone is worth more than the 100 million dollars the Army spends on advertising efforts.
It is questionable whether the Department of Defense officially supports or encourages Lujan’s social media presence. However, as noted by Dazed Digital, what isn’t debatable is the fact that “pro-military content like Lujan’s undeniably plays into the U.S. Army’s motives” amidst the recruitment crisis. Lujan, and numerous other Army e-girls, are successfully achieving the Defense Department’s goals of disseminating military propaganda to Gen Z by way of social media. Army e-girls like Lujan are a dangerous weapon in the government’s arsenal that sanitize the harsh realities of U.S. imperialism and promote “the sort of hypersexualized militarism that reframes violence as something cute, goofy and unthreatening” (Dazed Digital). The growing popularity of Army e-girls is especially dangerous when taking into account the pervasive sexual abuse and harassment in the U.S. Armed Forces that is disproportionately suffered by women. The military estimates that 35,875 active-duty service members experienced “unwanted sexual contact” in fiscal 2021 alone (Defense One). Accounts like Lujan’s distract from the disturbing occurrences of internal abuses that have terribly harmed countless individuals.
It is increasingly important for young people to be educated about the military’s ruthless recruiting tactics. While new covert methods to convince Gen Z to join the military are moving full steam ahead, it’s a moral duty of educators and activists to provide youth with the critical consciousness to recognize and unpack the Army’s hidden influencers.
Information sources:
● Military Times, 10/13/22, “Is the military too ‘woke’ to recruit?”
● NBC News, 6/27/22, “Every branch of the military is struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals, officials say”
● MSNBC, 2/14/23, “New data shatters the right-wing myth that a ‘woke’ army is deterring recruits”
● Stars and Stripes, 9/22/22, “Social media and influencers key to military recruitment of young people, defense officials say”
● Army Times, 6/10/19, “Study: Here’s how the Army can better use social media for recruiting”
● Task and Purpose, 6/8/22, “The Army is inviting social media influencers to DC to learn how to reach the youths”
● Dazed Digital, 1/10/23- “How e-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military”
● Defense One, 9/1/22, “Military Sexual Assaults Surged in 2021, Report Shows”
● Instagram, Lujan’s handle: Haylujan
● Lujan’s TikTok: Lunchbaglujan
This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (http://www.comdsd.org/).
