Armed Conflict

Explaining Wartime Rape

Citation:

Gottschall, Jonathan. 2004. “Explaining Wartime Rape.” Journal of Sex Research 41 (2): 129–36. doi:10.1080/00224490409552221.

Author: Jonathan Gottschall

Abstract:

In the years since the first reports of mass rapes in the Yugoslavian wars of secession and the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, feminist activists and scholars, human rights organizations, journalists, and social scientists have dedicated unprecedented efforts to document, explain, and seek solutions for the phenomenon of wartime rape. While contributors to this literature agree on much, there is no consensus on causal factors. This paper provides a brief overview of the literature on wartime rape in historical and ethnographical societies and a critical analysis of the four leading explanations for its root causes: the feminist theory, the cultural pathology theory, the strategic rape theory, and the biosocial theory. The paper concludes that the biosocial theory is the only one capable of bringing all the phenomena associated with wartime rape into a single explanatory context.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Secessionist Wars, Gender, Genocide, Justice, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2004

Just War Theory, Crimes of War, and War Rape

Citation:

Scholz, Sally. 2006. “Just War Theory, Crimes of War, and War Rape.” International Journal of Applied Philosophy 20 (1): 143–57.

Author: Sally Scholz

Abstract:

Recent decades have witnessed rape and sexual violence used on such a massive scale and often in a widespread and systematic program that the international community has had to recognize that rape and sexual violence are not just war crimes but might be crimes against humanity or even genocide. I suggest that just war theory, while limited in its applicability to mass rape, might nevertheless offer some framework for making the determination of when sexual violence and rape constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. In addition, just war theory can provide the normative justification individual soldiers need to resist orders and actions that demonstrate egregious moral breakdown as found in instances of mass rape and systematic use of sexual violence, and just war criteria demonstrate that the use of rape and sexual violence in war time can never be legitimated, especially in the case of prisoner interrogation.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Genocide, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape

Year: 2006

From Taboo to Transnational Political Issue: Violence against Women in Algeria

Citation:

Lloyd, Catherine. 2006. “From Taboo to Transnational Political Issue: Violence against Women in Algeria.” Women’s Studies International Forum 29 (5): 453–62. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2006.07.003.

Author: Catherine Lloyd

Abstract:

This article considers the way in which women are confined in their roles in social and cultural reproduction through violent acts of discipline. Through an examination of the case of Algeria, a society torn by civil violence in recent years, I argue that in order to understand the root causes of violence against women, we need a fuller understanding of the broader historical and social context. In the case of Algeria key factors are gendered discourses about power and domination, social space and the formation of national identity. In recent years they have been contested through collective acts of resistance, with transnational dimensions.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Algeria

Year: 2006

Inter-Ethnic Violence and Gendered Constructions of Ethnicity in Former-Yugoslavia

Citation:

Sofos, Spyros. 2010. “Inter-Ethnic Violence and Gendered Constructions of Ethnicity in Former-Yugoslavia.” Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 2 (1): 73–92.

Author: Spyros Sofos

Abstract:

This article constitutes an attempt to put forward some suggestions towards constructing a framework of understanding the processes of social construction of sexuality and gender identity within the context of the ethnic conflict, and of nationalist/populist politics in former Yugoslavia. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which masculinist discourse is articulated to the politics of ethnicity in former Yugoslavia, by examining the definition and treatment of women as `biological reproducers of the nation’ through the discourses and policy proposals of moral majority nationalist and pro-life movements in Croatia and Slovenia, and of the nationalist movement and regime in Serbia, and the use of rape and sexual assault against women as `weapons’ in the ethnic conflict in Bosnia and other republics of former Yugoslavia.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Sexuality Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2010

The Hegemonic Male and Kosovar Nationalism

Citation:

Munn, Jamie. 2007. “The Hegemonic Male and Kosovar Nationalism, 2000-2005.” Men and Masculinities 10 (4): 440–56. doi:10.1177/1097184X07306744.

Author: Jamie Munn

Abstract:

The article addresses the link between manhood and nationhood in post-conflict Kosova. Albanian Kosovars, like many “traditionally” patriarchal societies, have constructed identities of the patriotic man and the exalted childbearing woman as icons of national survival. These designated identities often negate the realities of war-affected communities. The gendered places of man and woman in political reality are marred by the traumatic events of conflict and post-conflict life. By thinking about the masculine microcultures of nation building (daily life), especially the construction of over-sexed and under-sexed individuals (i.e., the soldier) and the promiscuous enemies within (i.e., the female rape victim), there develops a connection between monoracial and heterosexual preserves and the need for this society to hold onto the traditional vision of man, at least until there is the political union of nation and state.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Patriarchy, Nationalism, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Kosovo

Year: 2007

War Propaganda and the (Ab)uses of Women: Media Constructions of the Jessica Lynch Story

Citation:

Kumar, Deepa. 2004. “War Propaganda and the (Ab)uses of Women: Media Constructions of the Jessica Lynch Story.” Feminist Media Studies 4 (3): 297-313.

Author: Deepa Kumar

Abstract:

The "rescue" of Private Jessica Lynch was one of the most extensively covered events of the 2003 US-led war on Iraq. In the 14 days after her rescue, Lynch drew 919 references in major newspapers. In contrast, General Tommy Franks, who ran the war, got 639 references, and Dick Cheney got 549 (Christopher Hanson 2003). The coverage of the Lynch story continued well into the year and far outstripped that devoted to any other captured or rescued prisoners of war (POWs), making Lynch a household name. This article studies how the Jessica Lynch story was constructed. I examine the conditions under which women in the military become visible and how their stories are told, both by the media and the military. The military, a quintessential patriarchal institution, relies on the construction of a soldier in specifically masculinist terms. While women have always been a part of the military, their presence has been systematically marginalized. Their role has typically been as "camp followers," i.e., service and maintenance workers, rather than those involved in active combat. Lynch stands out as one among a handful of women who have come to symbolize the presence of women in the US army. Yet, this is not a step fonward for women. Instead, the Lynch rescue narrative, I argue, served to forward the aims of war propaganda. The story of the "dramatic" rescue of a young, vulnerable woman, at a time when the war was not going well for the US, acted as the means by which a controversial war could be talked about in emotional rather than rational terms. Furthermore, constructed as hero. Lynch became a symbol of the West's "enlightened" attitude towards women, justifying the argument that the US was "liberating" the people of Iraq. In short, the Lynch story, far from putting forward an image of women's strength and autonomy, reveals yet another mechanism by which they are strategically used to win support for war.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Masculinism, Media, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2004

Boys or Men? Duped or ‘Made’? Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military

Citation:

Kanaaneh, Rhoda. 2005. “Boys or Men? Duped or ‘Made’? Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military.” American Ethnologist 32 (2): 260–75.

Abstract:

Several thousand Palestinian citizens of Israel currently volunteer to serve in various branches of the Israeli "security" apparatus. Members of this small group of mostly men are commonly perceived by other Palestinians as traitors to their people and are socially marginalized. Even soldiers who strain and sometimes break the limits of social acceptance, however, relate to their communities in dominant gendered terms. The critiques, explanations, and, occasionally, defenses of soldiering represent much larger concerns about the relationship of Palestinian citizens to the Israeli state, particularly concerns about Israelization, but are measured in relation to a family-centered provider masculinity. What the state offers or withholds from Arab soldiers plays a powerful role in shaping Palestinian discourses on masculinity and citizenship.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Citizenship, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2005

Barbie in the War Zone

Citation:

Turpin, Jennifer. 2003. “Barbie in the War Zone.” Social Alternatives 22 (2): 5-7.

Author: Jennifer Turpin

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence

Year: 2003

Transforming Conflict: Some Thoughts on a Gendered Understanding of Conflict Processes

Citation:

El-Bushra, Judy. 2000. “Transforming Conflict: Some Thoughts on a Gendered Understanding of Conflict Processes.” In States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance, edited by Susie Jacobs, Ruth Jacobson, and Jennifer Marchbank. London: Zed Books.

Author: Judy El-Bushra

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Development, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Peace Processes Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda

Year: 2000

War of Images of War: Rape and Sacrifice in the Iraq War

Citation:

Rial, Carmen. 2007. “War of Images of War: Rape and Sacrifice in the Iraq War.” Estudos Feministas 15 (1): 131–51.

Author: Carmen Rial

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2007

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