Feminist Security Studies. What loaded words! How can one word be political, social and economic all at the same? I'll tell you how. We live in a world where everything is on the table for the taking, to benefit individuals. The days of tribal societies are long gone. Now, our minds are in "me, myself and I" mode, because it's an option. We have to work twice or thrice as hard to make sure people are never comfortable are that. Once that state of individuality is reached its hard to go back. People get one taste of the sweetness of security and vow to never let it go, even though we learn over and over again through out history that we need one another.
Regardless of public opinion, I don't see the major progress women have made. Why have women become stuck in fake security? Yes, we have made strides, but at least in the past, violence against women was right there, open for the world to see. Now women don't even realize when violence is being enacted on them. In fact, American women have this idea that they "are so free", while women in other parts of the world are "so oppressed". I think that is where the future of Feminist Security Studies lies, because I know I live in an educated bubble where me and people around me somewhat understand this.
Waking women up to the reality that is right in front of their noses. Don't settle, don't be satisfied, and don't leave it someone else. Don't compare yourself to women across the nation because at the end of the day, we are all women. Don't complain about your salary that is still less than your male counterpart in the 21st century, and then talk about how crazy feminism is. Feminism isn't a special passion that only some acquire. It isn't the famine in Somalia, or the Arab Spring. This is about 51% of the world who deserve to be treated with same respect and dignity as the other 49% and aren't. Easier said than done, but we have the privilege to do so, why not? "What is more, feminists insist that the question of identity and security are fundamentally interwoven: Any security narrative is also a narrative of political identity"(Wibben 2011, p. 109).
In the words of Betty Hutton to Howard Keel: "Anything you can do I can do better."
Regardless of public opinion, I don't see the major progress women have made. Why have women become stuck in fake security? Yes, we have made strides, but at least in the past, violence against women was right there, open for the world to see. Now women don't even realize when violence is being enacted on them. In fact, American women have this idea that they "are so free", while women in other parts of the world are "so oppressed". I think that is where the future of Feminist Security Studies lies, because I know I live in an educated bubble where me and people around me somewhat understand this.
Waking women up to the reality that is right in front of their noses. Don't settle, don't be satisfied, and don't leave it someone else. Don't compare yourself to women across the nation because at the end of the day, we are all women. Don't complain about your salary that is still less than your male counterpart in the 21st century, and then talk about how crazy feminism is. Feminism isn't a special passion that only some acquire. It isn't the famine in Somalia, or the Arab Spring. This is about 51% of the world who deserve to be treated with same respect and dignity as the other 49% and aren't. Easier said than done, but we have the privilege to do so, why not? "What is more, feminists insist that the question of identity and security are fundamentally interwoven: Any security narrative is also a narrative of political identity"(Wibben 2011, p. 109).
In the words of Betty Hutton to Howard Keel: "Anything you can do I can do better."
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