A term coined by feminist Carol Cohn to further back her theory that masculinism is the root of all war. The theory discusses how basic male characteristics - dominance, war, sex are all interconnected with each other. It's some pretty fucked up shit. Supposedly, if we shed our masculinity (biologically there's an obvious need for males, but not their characteristics. It's a rather esoteric theory), there will be no more war. The main support for her theory comes from lectures about war from the males themselves, pointing how "war jargon" could quite easily be confused with something else. Excerpts from an essay by Cohn herself:
Lectures were filled with terms like "vertical erector launchers," "thrust-to-weight ratios," "soft lay-downs," "deep penetration," and the comparative advantages of "protracted" versus "spasm attacks." Another example is the popular and widespread custom of "patting the missiles," an expression of phallic supremacy but also homoerotic tendencies. It clearly is quite appropriate for feminist critics of nuclear policies to refer to "missile envy" and "phallic worship."
American dependence on nuclear weapons was explained as irresistible, because "you get more bang for the buck." A professor’s explanation of why the MX missiles should be placed in the silos of the newest Minuteman missiles instead of replacing the older, less accurate ones was, "You are not going to take the nicest missile you have and put it into a crummy hole." At one point, there was a serious concern that "we have to harden our missiles," because "the Russians are a little harder than we are." One military adviser to the National Security Council referred to "releasing seventy to eighty percent of our megatonnage in one orgasmic whump."