FSS-- future?

"The first task of a feminist security scholar should then be to develop a willingness to listen and to consider another view of the world" (Wibben, 2011, p.111).

The future starts with one simple word: curiosity (Enloe). Developing curiosity, as I have learned in the past two semesters, is necessary in the path towards establishing a feminist curiosity and to questioning everyday aspects of the political, because "feminism is political" (Wibben, 2011, p.113).

I think a big danger to the future, not just of Feminist Security Studies, but to society and people in general, is the same danger that Wibben identifies as "the myth of the empowerment narrative, the idea that we could be 'giving a voice' to someone (who am I to give a voice?)." She claims, instead, that "we need to 'ask ourselves the hard questions about what we are doing and why we are doing it'" (2011, p.110, quoting Andrews). This is the threat; that instead of perpetuating hegemony, knowledge, and power hierarchy, a critical aspect to the future of Feminist Security Studies is to understand that realities are all different, to question, and to tackle issues using the narrative perspective as a way to inform the general. As Cynthia Enloe said, the particular is the general, and the general is the particular, just a lot of particulars.

Wibben, A. (2011). Feminist Security Studies: A Narrative Approach. New York: Routledge.