Thursday, February 28, 2013

Part of Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwfgXD8qV8

Hey guys, I thought of this as I remembered last class' discussion about the ways in which this course has not just changed the way we think about women, violence, war, to minimally state it, but I think it's fair to say it has changed the way we experience and perceive many things-- from our everyday lives, we see things in a different light. I just had to share this because watching it made me pretty upset with the images Katy Perry is setting across, as well as the bumper sticker that says "All women are born equal, then some become Marines". I'm not sure if maybe I understood it wrong, but the way I took it to mean was that first of all, women and men aren't even born equal, but women are; second, when a woman joins the Marines, she isn't equal to other women because she loses her woman-ness, her femininity. So then, this bumper sticker is explicitly devalorizing not just women, but even women in the Marines by demonstrating that they aren't women anymore once they join-- seen through Katy's masculinization as she chops her hair off, and puts on the "tough-guy" act.
How does this video continue to justify the patriarchal structures working within the system, and here in the Marines? It also made me realize how stressful it is to realize the huge number of little girls and young women who look up to Katy Perry, who obviously uses her power to restructure existing the existing power-structures and society. Lastly,  we've mentioned this before, but now that the combat ban is lifted, does anybody think it's important/possible that women began to keep their femininity, or at least not be forced to masculinize? How do you think they would react? Would it change things? Is it necessary? Would it create a little more equality, or what about women who don't mind being masculine?

Monday, February 25, 2013

Burmese Refugees in Thailand

The chapter on the Burmese refugees in Thailand from “War Is Not Over When It's Over” by Ann Jones focuses on the process and some aftermaths, or bringing the Global Crescendo Project to photograph the daily lives of the thousands of displaced Burmese minorities "imprisoned" in these "temporary" homes for 20 years. Mainly focusing on the Karenni women, who were thought to be shy and self-contained, the GCP brought a voice to many of them, as well as an attempt to bridge the "gap between women and action" that exists as a result of a lack of impunity, patriarchy, and the opportunity to put into action the system of governance. Beyond the common difficulties in the camps, such as disease that passes quickly throughout because the houses are so close together, domestic violence is in high frequency but seldom acknowledged, as "women endure violence because they saw no other choice," ironic because it was a similar form of GBV, or torture, that they were escaping from when they were forced to escape Burma.  In the end, the lives of the women who participated were greatly impacted, and changes began to be made, but most importantly, it began a path to educating and teaching men "how the problem starts and how they can solve it by themselves", learning, and using their knowledge of their history of suffering to promote rights and security writhing the community and the private sphere.

Ann, Jones. "Burmese Refugees in Thailand: Someplace Else." War Is Not Over When It's Over. New York: Metropolitan, 2010. 168-203. 

Sierra Leone: Girls


Sierra Leone: Girls
            In the chapter “Sierra Leone: Girls” from Ann Jones’ War is Not Over When it’s Over, Jones shows that in the wake of a devastating civil war women and young girls are still experiencing the degradation, rape, and limitations that they were during wartime. Jones retells her experiences of giving cameras to girls and women to photograph their crumbling villages and scores of pregnant and unsupported teens. One of the central issues, according to Jones, is that older men, many from other countries, often seduce and rape very young girls and then leave them when they get pregnant, worsening their poverty and making going to school an impossibility.

Ann, Jones. "Sierra Leone: Girls." War Is Not Over When It's Over. New York: Metropolitan, 2010. 92-130. 

"Democratic Republic of Congo: Rape" summary

Ann Jones' chapter, “The Democratic Republic of Congo: Rape,” in War is Not Over When It's Over describes the long-standing situation of rampant sexual violence in the DRC, emphasizing the ripple effect of rape perpetrated by militias during conflict to the broader population. The situation is compounded, Jones illustrates, by a patriarchal culture that undervalues women and denies them their rights. She explains how a long history driven by a "privatization of violence" - wherein individual men rouse private armies and ethnic militias for personal wealth and power - ultimately reinforced a structure that normalizes rape and transforms the act from a problem of attacking the female body to a form of humiliation towards men. Though this rape culture stems from violence between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of the DRC, it became such a norm that common citizens (including teachers, pastors and even fathers) also participate in these acts of abuse. Extraordinary statistics and anecdotes concerning the high amount of women raped, gang raped, and raped multiple times; the wide age range among girls and women raped; the physical and psychological effects of rape; and disastrous tendencies towards victim-blaming further demonstrate the extent of which women are dehumanized and devalued under men in the DRC. Much of Jones' interaction and research occurs through her experience in working with the Gender Based Violence division of the International Rescue Committee and the Collectif des Femmes de Kamanyola, a local DRC group dedicated to providing support to victims of sexual assault.

Jones, A. (2010). "The Democratic Republic of Congo: Rape." War is not over when it's over: women speak out from the ruins of war. New York: Metropolitan Books.


*** I have the Kindle version of this book, which, unfortunately, does not show page numbers! I'm not sure how to cite this since I have no clue where several of these quotes/paraphrased ideas are located.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Cote D'Ivoire Summary


Jones, Ann. "Cote D'Ivoire: "Grace A L'Appareil"" War Is Not over When It's Over: Women Speak out from the Ruins of War. New York: Metropolitan, 2010. 15-55. Print.

As a part of their “A Global Crescendo: Women’s Voices From Conflict Zones” photography project, Ann Jones & the International Rescue Committee gave digital cameras to women living in small Cote d’Ivoire villages where being a women meant being relegated to the role of indentured servant. The volunteers were instructed to take photos of their trials, tribulations, triumphs, and everything in between. This photo-project gave the previously silenced women the skills they needed to identify what they’d like to change about their lives, the ability to concretely capture their dissatisfactions, and the courage to publically speak out about the injustices they suffered. By the end of the project some of the women even went so far as to march for their rights. Although this project did not get the Cote d’Ivoire women to talk about the gender based violence they experienced as a result of the recent civil war, it was a huge success insofar as it empowered these women of Cote d’Ivoire to fight for their rights.

Allie, Helen, Kortney

Liberia: Life Can Change - Section Summary


In the section “Liberia: Life Can Change” of “War Is Not Over When It’s Over”, Ann Jones shows the power of facilitating Liberian women’s ability to define and find solutions to their collective problems, centered around violence in supposed times of ‘peace’. Jones shows how much of Liberia’s contemporary history is characterized by violence towards women, exemplified by the findings that 75% of women refugees from Liberia report being sexually assaulted. Jones details her work through the International Rescue Committee by partnering with local Women’s Action Groups to select Liberian women to be photographers in their communities. These women had “survived the violence of war, and the violence of the peace that followed, when everything was changed; but they worried about the young girls” (Jones, 2010, p. 85). Through this form of community partnership Jones was able to speak candidly with Liberian women about violence in their home, particularly rape in marriage, and work with the women to reflect on their hopes and dreams for the future of young women in their communities and their own futures. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Event: Ann Jones on "The Longest War" on 2/25 @ 6:30pm

Remember:

Our first speaker of the semester, Ann Jones, is coming next Monday.
The event on February 25th at 6:30pm in Maraschi (Fromm Hall) is free
and open to the public.
Invite a friend!!!

Ann Jones

"The Longest War: Militarism and the War Against Women"  

A lecture by Ann Jones [video]

A book signing will follow the lecture and books will be available for purchase.
Ann Jones is the author of Kabul in Winter and War is Not Over When It's Over, her newest book, which is about women in conflict zones.  As part of the Spring 2013 Davies Forum, Women, Violence and War, she will lecture on "The Longest War: Militarism and the War Against Women."

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

On the Continuum of (Sexualized) Violence

During our last class we began talking about the continuum of (sexualized) violence, as identified by feminist scholars (such as Ann Jones, Liz Kelly, Jacqui True), as well as about linkages between masculinity and violence (drawing on the work of R.W. Connell in particular)... I would love to hear any follow-up reflections or thoughts - please post as a comment to this entry.

Next week we'll continue talking about the issues - looking at a variety of case studies from many parts of the world, some drawn from the work of Ann Jones, who is coming to visit us to talk about her work in Winter In Kabul: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (Picador: 2009) and War is Not Over When It’s Over: Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War (Metropolitan Books: 2009).
    As before, students will be posting summaries of some of the case studies on this blog.

    Monday, February 18, 2013

    MALALA YOUSAFZAI: I have the right

    Click through the link! Zen Pencils is one of my favorite things and this week's comic is definitely relevant to our class. 

    - Jillian 

    Wednesday, February 13, 2013

    Time for some action!

    Vday_SF_letter-v4.jpg
    This week you learned about Violence Against Women - so here is a chance to convert your new knowledge into action.

    Monday, February 11, 2013













    http://www.lolroflmao.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/A-girl-dreams-about-a-bad-boy-who-is-gentle-only-for-her-A-boy-wants-a-good-girl-who-is-naughty-only-for-him.jpg




    I saw this on Facebook not long ago (I don't remember how many likes it had, but I'm pretty sure it was a couple hundred thousand) and this came to mind as I was reading the piece by Jones, Chapter 4.

    Sunday, February 10, 2013

    Kronsell Case Study

    Annica Kronsell's "Methods for Studying Silences: Gender Analysis In Institutions of Hegemonic Masculinity" focuses on studying the "silence" of oppression, problematizing masculinity and highlighting male hegemony that may not be explicitly promoted. Kronsell's case study centers upon the Swedish Armed Forces, in which she first looks to the "universal conscription" (113).  Kronsell comments that the so-called "information problem," in which the male proportion of the draft dropped, was never a problem when the female proportion was not presented. She concludes that this reinforces male hegemony - that men are therefore given a superior status to women as the appropriate defenders of the nation and the only citizens capable of being entrusted with knowledge concerning security and defense matters (113, 115). Kronsell also highlights the use of language that maintains "masculinities and the hegemony of men" (110) in the Swedish Armed Forces. The military papers stated the ambiguous "officer" or "conscript," in no way that directed any gender explicitly, but it was known socially that those roles belonged to men exclusively (Kronsell, 113). Also, in texts, women were never mentioned, so it also meant that only men were considered "real" citizens, and heads of the households (Kronsell, 115). Another group excluded fro the army is the "male" LGBT community (Kronsell, 116). There is no debate about changing traditions in the military. It was only until the military saw a decline in military soldiers that they contemplated having women join. Kronsell found that there was a positive influence in the Armed Forces by having women present there. One of the points found was that there was a "shaping up" of language (Kronsell, 120), especially since most language used is sexual, and pornographic images were taken down from bunks (Kronsell, 120). 

    Maria, Kortney, Ienna

    Saturday, February 9, 2013

    Cohn Case Study

    Carol Cohn's piece, ""Motives and Methods: Using multi-sited ethnography to study U.S. national security discourses" stresses the importance of comprehensivity in research. Being comprehensive allows for an examination of multi-sited research (among other locations, Cohn interviewed at war colleges, military academies and nuclear sites). Cohn became interested in the topic when she noted gendered rhetoric while studying national security rhetoric during the Cold War era. She interviewed a wide range of individuals including: military spouses, enlisted personnel, officers, and scientists. Cohn also discusses the influence of bias and stereotypes. Biases existed on both ends. For example, she noted civilian vs. military biases, male vs. female biases, career biases, and her own difficulty interviewing whom she viewed as a war criminal.

    Cohn, Carol (2006) "Motives and Methods: Using multi-sited ethnography to study U.S. national security discourses" In: Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True (eds) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Cambridge University Press: pp. 129-152.

                                                                - Laur and Edwin

    Thursday, February 7, 2013

    Summary of D'Costa Case Study

    Bina D'Costa's case study of women who were subjected to rape and sexual assault during and after the Independence War of Bangladesh accomplishes two main things: (1) Examines the theme of silence as a response or rationalization to these instances of rape and/or sexual assault and (2) Problematizes the governmental response to these instances which included rehabilitation programs, forced abortions, war-baby adoption programs, and a "marry them off" campaign (143). According to D'Costa, the women experienced three types of silence: (1) On the part of the successive government (2) self-imposed silence or "negotiated survival" and (3) Silencing from social workers, activists, and human rights groups. D'Costa reports a variety of personal and/or methodology challenges that informed her study, such as encouraging the women to share their experiences, formatting interview questions, and deciding whether to refer to the women as "survivors" or "victims".

    Summary by Lisa, Helen, Valeria, and Jillian

    Maria Stern (174-197)


    A brief summary of “Racism, sexism, classism, and much more: reading security-identity in marginalized sites” by Maria Stern (pg. 174-197)

                Maria Stern, in her article "Racism, sexism, classism, and much more: reading security-identity in marginalized sites," speaks about the insecurity of Mayan women marginalized by the Guatemalan elites and the Guatemalan state. Stern explains that, “In sum Mayan women’s insecurity [is] multiple, contingent, and defined in terms of their identity" (176). The Mayans that stern interviewed identified themselves as women, indigenous, and poor which showed their understanding of their identity as marginalized Guatemalan pseudo citizens. Even though Stern was only able to interview women that were political leaders due to their ability to read and co-author their narrative, there was a large consensus amongst them that they had been a part of a resistance that has lasted 500 years (192). The challenges faced by Stern in researching the plight of these women were being able to communicate effectively, while at the same time not exploiting their narratives, all while remembering and balancing her position of privilege.

    By Maribel, Haley, and Alexandra 

    Monday, February 4, 2013

    From the Trenches, by Tami Jacoby

    Summary of article “From the Trenches: Dilemmas of Feminist IR Fieldwork” by Tami Jacoby. In: Ackerly, B., Stern, M., & True, J. (2006). Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. New York : Cambridge University Press. 153-173) 

    This article discusses the ways in which research in the field offers constraints and opportunities for re-thinking the broader concepts of social science research. Jacoby uses the example of her fieldwork in Israel-Palestine, which centered on questions of security for women. Her experiences during her interview process emphasized the importance of the different definitions of ‘security’ held by different women. Her perspective also reflected the themes of flexibility, reflexivity and open-endedness because she defines research as an “ongoing negotiating process between subject and researcher which includes revision of initial questions and hypotheses” (Jacoby, 2006, p.172). This flexibility included departing from her prepared research questions, engaging in free dialogue and omitting certain personal information in order to avoid pre-judgment and/or self-censorship.

    Feminist Research: Methodology & Ethics

    After an initial introduction to Feminist  International Relations/ Feminist Security Studies at our first seminar meeting, today we focused on what distinguishes feminist research in International Politics (and beyond), paying particular attention to feminist research ethics. Students read materials from the  following books:


    ... and, in groups, discussed different feminist research reports featured in Ackerly, Stern & True (2006). Summaries of the latter will be posted by the students themselves.