Race

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

Citation:

Prividera, Laura C., and John W. Howard III. 2006. "Masculinity, Whiteness, and the Warrior Hero: Perpetuating the Strategic Rhetoric of U.S. Nationalism and the Marginalization of Women." Women and Language 29 (2).

Authors: Laura C. Prividera, John W. Howard III

Abstract:

In this research we employed gender archetypes and critical whiteness studies to examine the interconnectedness of gender, race, and nationalism in U.S. media coverage of the 507th Ordinance Maintenance Company during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Our theoretical frame illustrates how the national ideology sanctions specific constructions of gender and race both in and out of the military. The nationally-preferred archetypal constructions (in particular the "warrior hero" archetype) framed media representations of Jessica Lynch, Lori Piestewa, and Shoshona Johnson. Our feminist rhetorical analysis reveals how the media portrayal of the soldiers of the 507th simultaneously privileges whiteness and marginalizes femininity through its extensive focus on Private Jessica Lynch. In addition, this study demonstrates how the overarching national ideology creates a complex social hierarchy of gender and race relative to the ideal (archetypal) national representative.

Topics: Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Media, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Nationalism, Race Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2006

Citation:

Nusair, Isis. 2008. “Gendered, Racialized And Sexualized Torture At Abu-Ghraib,” In Feminism and Wars: Confronting US Imperialism, edited by Mohanty and Riley, 179-93. London: Zed Books.

Author: Isis Nusair

Abstract:

This chapter examines the gendered, racialized and sexualized torture at Abu-Ghraib within the larger context of the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and torture and mistreatment of detainees in other parts of Iraq; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and Afghanistan. [Nusair] argue[s] that what took place at Abu-Ghraib is not an exceptional and isolated case perpetrated by few bad apples but part of an Orientalist representation that aims to shame and sexually humiliate detainees and reinforce their difference as racially inferior Others. Within this phallocentric binary logic of opposition where the East is represented as backward and barbarian and the West as civilizing and modernizing the naturalness and for-granted authority to dominate the Other is established. It is within this framework that [Nusair] analyze[s] the connection between militarist hyper-sexuality, feminization, and racialization at Abu-Ghraib. In addition, [Nusair] analyze[s] the silence around the rape of women at Abu-Ghraib, and the unveiling and stripping naked of detainees as they relate to the larger system of domination currently at play in Iraq. [Nusair] conclude[s] by analyzing current modes of feminist resistance in Iraq and the strategies used by activists to shape their lives within this highly masculinized and militarized system of control. 

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Militarization, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: MENA, Americas, Caribbean countries, North America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, United States of America

Year: 2008

Citation:

Card, Claudia. 1997. “Addendum to ‘Rape as a Weapon of War'.” Hypatia 12 (2): 216–8.

Author: Claudia Card

Abstract:

Learning about martial sex crimes against men has made me rethink some of my ideas about rape as a weapon of war and how to respond to it. Such crimes can be as racist as they are sexist and, in the case of male victims, may be quite simply racist.

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Men, SV against Women, Weapons /Arms

Year: 1997

Citation:

Streicker, Joel. 1995. “Policing Boundaries: Race, Class, and Gender in Cartagena, Colombia.” American Ethnologist 22 (1): 54–74.

Author: Joel Streicker

Abstract:

Analysis of everyday discourse among the poor of Cartagena, Colombia, reveals the mutual construction of race, class, and gender identities. Discourse on class and gender encodes racially discriminatory concepts, identifying blackness with acts that contradict normative class and gender identities. This article shows how the interlocking meanings of race, class, and gender enforce the status quo of men's, nonblacks', and elders' authority within the popular class.

Topics: Class, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Race Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 1995

Citation:

Waller, Marguerite. and Jennifer Rycenga. 2000. Frontline Feminisms: Women, War, and Resistance. New York: Garland Pub. 

Authors: Marguerite Waller, Jennifer Rycenga

Keywords: war, feminism, women

Annotation:

The essays in this collection, from both scholars and activists, explore the experiences of local women's groups that have developed to fight war, militarization, political domination, and patriarchy throughout the world.

Table of Contents:

Series Editor's Foreword /Chandra Talpade Mohanty

I. Domestic and Public Violence

1.Public Imprisonment and Private Violence: Reflections on the Hidden Punishment of Women /Angela Y. Davis

2.Screaming in Silence /Shadia el Sarraj

3.From Reverence to Rape: An Anthropology of Ethnic and Genderized Violence /Vesna Kesic

4.Laughter, Tears, and Politics - Dialogue: How Women Do It /Vesna Kesic and Lepa Mladjenovic

5.The Opposite of War Is Not Peace - It Is Creativity /Zorica Mrsevic

6.Is Violence Male? The Law, Gender, and Violence /Lucinda Joy Peach

7.Art as a Healing Tool from "A Window Between Worlds" /Cathy Salser

II. Gender, Militarism, and Sexuality

8.Translating/Transgressing/Torture ... /Irene Matthews

9.Women and Militarization in Israel: Forgotten Letters in the Midst of Conflict /Isis Nusair

10.Sudanese Women under Repression, and the Shortest Way to Equality /Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim

11.Who Benefits? U.S. Military, Prostitution, and Base Conversion /Saundra Sturdevant

12.Demilitarizing Security: Women Oppose U.S. Militarism in East Asia /Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey

13.Women's Politics and Organizing in Vietnam and Cambodia /Kathryn McMahon

14.Women in Command: A Successful Experience in the National Liberation Army of Iran /Sorayya Shahri

15.Conversion /Habiba Metikos

16.The Passage /Vinka Ljubimir

III. Nonviolent, and Not-Nonviolent, Action against Patriarchy

17.The Kitchen Cabinet /Julie Mertus

18.Ritual as Resistance: Tibetan Women and Nonviolence /Benina Berger Gould

19.The Impact of Women in Black in Israel /Gila Svirsky

20.Feminist Resistance to War and Violence in Serbia /Lepa Mladjenovic and Donna M. Hughes

21.Gender, Nationalism, and the Ambiguity of Female Agency in Aceh, Indonesia, and East Timor /Jacqueline Siapno

22.Maria Stewart, Black Abolitionist, and the Idea of Freedom /Jennifer Rycenga

23.January 16, 1997: Message from Maryam Rajavi, President-Elect of the Iranian Resistance /Maryam Rajavi

24."You Have a Voice Now, Resistance Is Futile!" /Shashwati Talukdar

IV. Where Are the Frontlines?

25.Women's Activism in Rural Kosova /Eli

26.The Soldier and the State: Post-Liberation Women: The Case of Eritrea /Sondra Hale

27.Beyond the Baton: How Women's Responses Are Changing Definitions of Police Violence /Nancy Keefe Rhodes

28.Black Women and Labor Unions in the South: From the 1970s to the 1990s /Ida Leachman

29.From the Mississippi Delta to South Central Los Angeles /Georgiana Williams

30."A Struggle for the Mind": Black Working-Class Women's Organizing in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, 1960s to 1990s /Laurie Beth Green

31.A State of Work: Women, Politics, and Protest on an Indian Tea Plantation /Piya Chatterjee.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Nonviolence, Political Participation, Race, Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women

Year: 2000

Citation:

Riley, Robin L., and Naeem Inayatullah. 2006. Interrogating Imperialism: Conversations on Gender, Race, and War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Robin L. Riley, Naeem Inayatullah

Abstract:

This collection of multiple perspectives on the "war on terror" and the new imperialism provides a depth of analysis. Looking at the imperialism and the "war on terror" through a lens focused on gender and race, the contributors expose the limitations of the current popular discourse and help to uncover possibilities not yet apparent in that same discourse. (Amazon)

Keywords: imperialism, Gender, race, war on terror, war

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Terrorism

Year: 2006

Citation:

Miller, Laura L., and Charles Moskos. 1995. “Humanitarians or Warriors?: Race, Gender, and Combat Status in Operation Restore Hope.” Armed Forces & Society 21 (4): 615-637.

Authors: Laura L. Miller, Charles Moskos

Abstract:

Operation Restore Hope was a confusing mission for American soldiers. Trained as warriors, they were thrust into a humanitarian mission. Expecting to distribute food to grateful Somalis, they were attacked instead by the locals and were limited to security and guard duty. Soldiers' attitudes evolved through three stages: high expectations, disillusionment, and reconsideration. In the last stage, soldiers adopted one of two frameworks to cope with the ambiguity of the mission: warrior versus humanitarian. The former was more strongly associated with whites, men, and combat soldiers, who constructed negative stereotypes of Somalis and favored returning violence with violence. Blacks, women, and support soldiers tended to reject victim-blaming arguments seemingly imported from the United States. They maintained a humanitarian position, seeking explanations for Somali actions and distinguishing between clan warriors and needy refugees. Our data come from field observations, interviews, and surveys of Army troops who served in Somalia.

Keywords: humanitarian mission, combatants, race, Gender, Operation Restore Hope, American soldiers, Somali refugees

Topics: Combatants, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Humanitarian Assistance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Race Regions: Africa, East Africa, Americas, North America Countries: Somalia, United States of America

Year: 1995

Citation:

Giles, Wenona M., and Jennifer Hyndman, eds. 2004. Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Authors: Wenona M. Giles, Jennifer Hyndman

Abstract:

In conflict zones from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guatemala and Somalia, the rules of war are changing dramatically. Distinctions between battlefield and home, soldier and civilian, state security and domestic security are breaking down. In this especially timely book, a powerful group of international authors doing feminist research brings the highly gendered and racialized dimensions of these changes into sharp relief. In essays on nationalism, the political economy of conflict, and the politics of asylum, they investigate what happens when the body, household, nation, state, and economy become sites at which violence is invoked against people. In particular, these hard-hitting essays move us forward in our understanding of violence against women--how it is perpetrated, survived, and resisted. They explore the gendered politics of ethno-nationalism in Sri Lanka, the post-Yugoslav states, and Israel and Palestine. They consider "honor killings" in Iraqi Kurdistan, armed conflict in the Sudan, and geographies of violence in Ghana. This volume augments feminist analysis on conflict zones and contributes to transnational coalition-building and feminist organizing. (WorldCat.org)

Keywords: conflict zones, gendered politics, honour-killings, refugee, violence, Gender

Annotation:

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction: Gender and Conflict in a Global Context / Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman --

2. The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace / Cynthia Cockburn --

3. The Sounds of Silence: Feminist Research Across Time in Guatemala / Cathy Blacklock and Alison Crosby --

4. Like Oil and Water, With a Match: Militarized Commerce, Armed Conflict, and Human Security in Sudan / Audrey Macklin --

5. No "Safe Haven": Violence Against Women in Iraqi Kurdistan / Shahrzad Mojab --

6. From Pillars of Yugoslavism to Targets of Violence: Interethnic Marriages in the Former Yugoslavia and Thereafter / Mirjana Morokvasic-Müller --

7. Geographies of Violence: Women and Conflict in Ghana / Valerie Pretson and Madeleine Wong --

8. Gender, the Nationalist Imagination, War, and Peace / Nira Yuval-Davis --

9. Refugee Camps as Conflict Zones: The Politics of Gender / Jennifer Hyndman --

10. The "Purity" of Displacement and the Reterritorialization of Longing: Muslim IDPs in the Northwestern Sri Lanka / Malathi de Alvis --

11. Escaping Conflict: Afghan Women in Transit / Asha Hans --

12. War, Flight, and Exile: Gendered Violence among Refugee Women from Post-Yugoslav States / Maja Korac --

13. The Gendered Impact of Multilateralism in the Post-Yugoslav States: Intervention, Reconstruction, and Globalization / Edith Klein --

14. New Directions for Feminist Research and Politics / Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman --

Topics: Armed Conflict, Class, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Households, Nationalism, Political Economies, Race, Security, Violence

Year: 2004

Citation:

Cockburn, Cynthia. 2007. From Where We Stand: War, Women's Activism and Feminist Analysis. New York: Zed Books.

Author: Cynthia Cockburn

Abstract:

The product of 80,000 miles of travel by the author over a two-year period, this original study examines women's activism against wars as far apart as Sierra Leone, Colombia and India. It shows women on different sides of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Israel refusing enmity and co-operating for peace. It describes international networks of women opposing US and Western European militarism and the so-called 'war on terror'. Women are often motivated by adverse experiences in male-led anti-war movements, preferring to choose different methods of protest and remain in control of their own actions. But like the mainstream movements, women's groups differ - some are pacifist while others put justice before non-violence; some condemn nationalism as a cause of war while others see it as a legitimate source of identity. The very existence of feminist antimilitarism proposes a radical shift in our understanding of war, linking the violence of patriarchal power to that of class oppression and ethnic 'othering'.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Class, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Race, Terrorism, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Colombia, India, Sierra Leone, United States of America

Year: 2007