An Apt Cartoon

Oh Subliminal Messaging.... Thou art Still so Rampant!

Charmin Commercialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo4oEdtDRPo

Here is an example of overt and subtler gender stereotyping.  (Sorry I couldn't get the YouTube video to show up here, but check it out!!)

The commercial is promoting Charmin Ultra Strong as a way to help keep underwear clean.

Overt: Women do laundry and its cleanliness is a primary concern of theirs.
Women are peppy, smily and feminine.
In the bear sections we see all the other normal stereotypes about males being large and females small and men grunting and women having soft voices.

More subtle: Messiness is a masculine trait - only the son and the dad are implied as leavers of skidmarks in their underwear.
Bathroom etiquette is not something we can speak about - (More below!)

The commercial is enforcing many overt gender stereotypes, but the most interesting connection I found was the following.  According to Charmin, women do the laundry and are cleanly, but their sons and husbands are not, sometimes leaving "skidmarks," fecal matter, in their underwear.  Direct conversation about bathroom habits would seem to be the obvious solution, but such conversation is societally taboo, especially across genders.  So, concludes Charmin, one should buy their brand of toilet paper in order to solve the problem without breaking any taboos.

This really struck me because I had to watch the commercial several times (I was watching Hulu, so you see the same commercial over and over) to get this deeper gender stereotype.  These stereotypes have been so normalized, are so taken for granted, that even a recent graduate of the 2013 Davies Forum had to look hard to get the deeper message.

Be careful what you watch, because the subliminal messages can pass by unnoticed, and then get stuck in your subconscious.  There they may fester and subtly influence your decision making process, leading to future actions of your own which enforce gender stereotypes.

Such insidious conditioning is everywhere in our society, and it is highly dangerous.  This can be seen many places, but is especially true of Charmin commercials, because as a Montana native, I can tell you that bears are neither cute nor cuddly, and anything that tells you otherwise might get you mauled.

WATCH OUT!

A MUST READ for anyone who wants be informed about Iraq

What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq by Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt

            This book is the most incredible piece of writing I have ever encountered concerning the Iraq War.  It was comprehensive but concise, informative but easy to read, and clear while presenting a perspective that few Americans ever consider – the history of feminism and women’s (continuing!) activism in Iraq.  This book chronicles the rise and fall of women’s rights and movements in a country that the American media has portrayed as unflinchingly misogynistic and archaic.  Al-Ali and Pratt cut through this fabrication with a precision that takes the breath away. 

            They present a holistic and nuanced version of women’s active participation in Iraqi society, both politically and socially.  They manage to speak about the horrific reality of living conditions in Iraq without sensationalizing it, and to clearly and solidly refute the rhetoric of the Bush administration which claimed that Iraqi women were in need of the kind of liberation it could provide.

            I found this piece extremely meaningful because it contains the data to prove all of the half-baked theories I’ve gleaned from headlines and things other more well-informed people have told me.  And the writing style is so perfect for the content: simple enough that you don’t get lost in the academia and so compelling that you can’t put it down.  Such a piece of literature is exactly what I needed to really get a grasp of the reality of the situation in Iraq.  I often find myself shying away from learning about that war, either because it’s so gory and sensationalized that I feel sick, or so dry that I can’t get through it.  But this book is so obviously written from a place of caring for the women of Iraq, a caring that includes a desire to tell their story correctly, and to work towards a more tenable future for them, it makes it easier for me to care about the war in a way that is productive.

            In essence, this book contains all the facts one might ever need in order to prove that, at least for women, the invasion of Iraq has not brought any kind of liberation.

Al-Ali, N., & Pratt, N. (2009). What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Put the blame where it belongs - On the Perp, even it it reflects back onto us

           In “Why Doesn’t She Leave,” an article by Ann Jones (in: Next Time She'll Be Dead. Boston: Beacon Press. 1994), we are reminded of an old adage: history is written by the victor.  In our current American society, where research is conducted mainly by men, trials are overseen by mainly male judges, and policy is made by mainly men, it is absurd to imagine that we would have a concept of domestic violence that is unbiased, fair, or representative of a female perspective.

This becomes particularly clear when we examine the research that has been conducted in the area of domestic violence.  Not only is the language used in this research blatantly biased (See “The Language of Love,” Jones 1994) but the focus of the research itself is inexcusably skewed.

Most research conducted in the United States of America on the topic of domestic violence is centered on the victim (Jones 1994), as if figuring out what unites victims of domestic abuse will give us the key to stopping it.  This is an overt example of a misogynistic scientific research process which has extreme consequences for victims of domestic abuse including rape, torture and death.  What needs to stop is THE ABUSER’S VIOLENCE TOWARDS HIS VICTIM.  Stopping abuse cannot be achieved by changing the behavior of the victim.  This is MISSING THE POINT ENTIRELY and is victim-blaming in the simplest terms. 

The incidence of victim-blaming in current mainstream media can be easily explained by our consistent patterns of misogynistic research practices which place the blame on victims.  It can be seen everywhere, from politicians protesting a regulation that would require physicians to ask about domestic abuse in regular doctor’s visits, to high-profile abusers being given lighter sentences because the public is sympathetic to an athlete’s need to “get out his stress” by beating up his wife. 

It all links back to the fact that we as a culture refuse to place blame on the perpetrator because it leads to a recognition that we all participate in a society which normalizes a male mentality which leads to such violence.  In Kelly’s “Continuum of Sexual Violence” she examines the slew of sexualized violence which, legally and societally, is considered acceptable.  In a society that accepts “goosing” and “cat calls” as “funny,” it is often forgotten that, subconsciously, what women fear when these “commonplace bits of fun” occur is death itself. 

Liz Kelly (1987) uses a quote from Stanko (1985) in her “Continuum of sexualized violence” that emphasizes this point.  “In abstract we easily draw lines between those aberrant (thus harmful), and those typical (thus unharmful) types of male behavior.  We even label the aberrant behavior as potentially criminal behavior…Women who feel violated or intimidated by typical make behavior have no way of specifying how or why typical make behavior feels like aberrant male behavior” (p. 10).  Anu Bhagwati stated it even more simply, saying that instead of creating complex metaphor-based anti-rape ad campaigns, the message could consist of only two words.  DON’T RAPE. 

I’d like to see that ad campaign, and others like it.  No matter how uncomfortable it is for society at large and people in power to accept responsibility for domestic abuse, it certainly can’t be as uncomfortable as the abuse suffered by millions of Americans every day.

Ann Jones'  "Why doesn't she leave?" In: Next Time She'll Be Dead. Boston: Beacon Press. 1994.

Kelly, L. “The Continuum of Sexual Violence.” In: Women, Violence and Social Control, edited by Hanmer, J., and Maynard, M. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities International Press: 46-60. 1987.

The Future of Feminist Security Studies: The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

       Feminist Security Studies (wherever the semantic emphasis falls) seems to be a field with a bright, if not clearly one-directional future.  What I mean by this is that of all of the academic disciplines, those I respect the most are those which are constantly questioning their goals, methods, and terminology.  Just like research which is bettered by changing the research question to fit the results, rather that squeezing the results into some pre-conceived theory, I believe that academic disciplines should not take their fundamental tenets (or their names) as divinely written in stone.  I see nothing wrong, and, in fact, everything right, about a field writing to question and evaluate their practices, values, methodology and even its name. 

           Ann Jones (1994) would agree with me, stating “Researchers…commonly present [their ‘subjects’] with a list of predetermined questions, designed to elicit the information the researchers want, and keyed for quick reduction to faceless numbers – a ‘scientific method’ very different from listening to what women have to say for themselves” (pg. 155). 

The feminist curiosity that Cynthia Enloe writes about would appear to be a useful perspective for any academic, because by approaching everything, even one’s dearly held “traditions” with a critical mind, one can discover new links, new theories, and new conclusions. This is why I feel confident about the future of Feminist Security Studies.  If many people in the discipline are utilizing this feminist curiosity, the discipline will remain alive and vital.  (One hopes that their curiosity might puncture any egos unwilling to keep changing.)

I am still undecided about whether I think that sticking with the conventional definition of “Security Studies” is a positive approach; it does allow for those unfamiliar with feminist theory to grasp the ideas with a familiar framework. If such a framework were discarded, how would analysis be carried out, and how would anyone outside FSS be able to understand it?

            On the other hand, changing existing power structures from the inside can be arduous and ultimately an exercise in futility.  Perhaps the solution would be to continue to grow and expand FSS, drawing on both reframed traditional academic practices of the discipline of Security Studies, and also new academic practices created by FSS scholars.  This could, hopefully, grow to such proportions that it would seriously rival traditional Security Studies. 

            While perhaps an overly optimistic view, I think that a re-definition of the term “Security” has such far-reaching consequences that it is worthy of much academic (and policy-makers’) attention.  Because so far, to me “Feminist” Security Studies is simply a more holistic view of “Security Studies.”  It is not a niche, it is a view of International Relations that includes, and focuses on women.  And this does seem like a good idea, doesn’t it, given that over 50% of the global population is, guess what: women!

            Women already play an enormous role in “war” and “peace-”time International Relations.  It’s about time we started studying that role in detail.  Perhaps then we would be able to see things in a light that is clear and piercing enough, that we would be able to break the cycle of history and head off in a new direction.

Ann Jones'  "Why doesn't she leave?" In: Next Time She'll Be Dead. Boston: Beacon Press. 1994.

Ann Jones' Davies Forum Lecture at USF

VIDEO HERE: The Longest War: Militarism and the War Against Women
Lecture presented at USF on 2/21/2013

Ann Jones is the author of numerous books on violence against women, including Women Who Kill and Next Time She'll Be Dead which focus on domestic violence in the U.S., as well as, more recently, Kabul in Winter and War is Not Over When It's Over, where she takes her expertise to conflict zones. As part of the Spring 2013 Davies Forum, Women, Violence and War, she lectured on "The Longest War: Militarism and the War Against Women." 

After the lecture, some of us went out to dinner...

The Faces of Activism - Reflection on our visit from Anu Bhagwati - Allie Khori

         As an artist, the issue of funding, and thus ultimate artistic control, is one of great personal importance.  Should I accept funds from corporate sponsors even though I don’t agree with their mission or policies?  Or should I allow my theatre to close due to bankruptcy in order to stay true to my principles?  This is not an exaggerated situation, it happened to the San Francisco Mime Troupe less than five years ago. 

            This same issue is one that is faced by politicians and activists all over the world.  How much will one bend one’s principles in order to get the support (financial or otherwise) one needs to accomplish one’s goals?  This quandary is highlighted when it is a marginalized population attempting to make change, because that group already faces so much pressure to capitulate to the dominant group’s principles. 

Our class noticed that our guest speaker, Anu Bhagwati, seemed to be grappling with this precise quandary.  When she spoke to our class she was very open about her qualms with the Iraq war, and the difficulties service members face.  Yet when she gave her public talk she was much more one-sided and pro-military. 

While I understand how unsettling it can be to see someone act so differently from one situation to the next, I also understand that navigating our current American legal system is an incredibly difficult process that requires many different tactics and a great deal of flexibility.  And as Anu says in her blog posting entitled “Representing Women Soldiers in the Media: Stop Exploiting, Start Empowering” (March 7, 2013), she has a personal commitment to trying to heal veterans trauma.  That is her goal, first and foremost, and she is prepared to do a lot in order to achieve it. 

This issue of flexibility vs. capitulation is one that I expect to face many times in my career as an artist, and I believe that keeping an open, self-reflective, inner dialogue based on the tenets of feminist curiosity will help me navigate it.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/regardingwar/conversations/women-and-war/representing-women-soldiers-in-the-media-stop-exploiting-start-empowering.php

2013 Davies Workshop Response - Allie Khori

         

2013 Davies Forum Workshop: Feminist Perspectives on Studying Women, Violence & War

April 8^th, 2013

Invited Guests (Davies Fellows):

n  Sarai Aharoni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (http://saraiaharoni.com/)

n  Caron Gentry, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (http://www.standrews.ac.uk/intrel/people/index.php/ceg1.html)

n  Swati Parashar, Monash University, Australia (http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/swati-parashar/)

n  Elina Penttinen, University of Tampere, Finland (http://www.uta.fi/jkk/pol/yhteystiedot/penttinen.html)

 

          What really struck me about the workshop was the commitment that I saw the speakers show to an aspect of feminist research which states that the input of all individuals should be taken seriously (though not necessarily agreed with.)  They seemed genuinely interested in what we students had to contribute, despite our youth and the fact that for many of us, feminism and/or gender and sexuality studies are relatively new. 

            I also appreciated the different perspectives they offered, not only in terms of opinion but of background, research approach, and even method of inquiry.  We partook in an art activity led by Elina.  First we were guided through a short relaxation exercise, and then we were asked to draw for a short period of time in response to the words Elina gave us which pertained to violence/peace binaries. 

Even though I consider myself an artistic person, and I can often be found doodling, the images that I drew in our exercise surprised me, both in terms of what images I first associate (at least, at that moment they were my first associations) with violence, and how specific and personal they were because I don’t think of myself as someone who’s been exposed to much violence.  This activity reminded me of something one of the speakers at the ISA conference mentioned; how everyone is not just “affected” by violence and war, but how everyone is touched by violence and war in a way that is unique to that person and their individual circumstances.  This concept can be closely linked to an investigative method used in feminist securities studies which (in theory) attempts to focus on the unique individual and then compare them with more generalized knowledge (See Cynthia Enloe’s work, especially Nimo’s War, Emma’s War).

            The artistic activity we participated in helped us examine and reflect on our emotions and their connections to particular words/concepts.  This was directly related to one of the pieces we read by one of our workshop panelists: Swati Parashar.  Her piece, from Chapter 36 “(En) gendered Terror: Feminist Approaches to Political Violence” of her as of yet unpublished book, speaks to the suppression of emotions that she experienced when trying to “remain objective” while conducting research.  She found this endeavour to be problematic, as at a fundamental level it is humanly impossible to be totally “objective.”  Thus it would follow that remaining very aware of one’s emotions would help one to identify one’s bias, and thus present a more truthful account of one’s view.  I perceive this inclusion of the researcher’s bias to be one of the most vital contributions that Feminist IR makes to academia as a whole.

Enloe, C. (2010) Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 

Response to "The Invisible War," a film directed by Kirby Dick - Allie Khori

http://invisiblewarmovie.com/

While I know that I am probably the last person in our entire class to watch this movie, and doubtless anything I say will be something my classmates have already considered, I must say that I was particularly impressed with this piece of documentary film making.

            The effect that this movie had, whether as grand as it claimed (making the DOD change its policy after viewing it) or not, gave me a lot of confidence in the power of art to make positive social change.  Television as a medium is in itself innocuous, simply a tool, a method of presenting images and sounds to a wide audience.  It can be used to numb or to incite, to quiet rumblings or fan the fire.  Telling extremely personal stories to a camera, knowing full well that these images will be seen by millions of viewers, requires a special kind of bravery, one that is full of hope and courage, and it was very powerful to see.

            If the military is like a family, and service members see each other as siblings and their commanding officers as a close authority figure, then rape within a unit and denial/punishment of the victim by the CO is akin to a sister being raped by her brother, telling their father, and then having the father punish his daughter for this crime.  This betrayal of a most intimate trust is traumatic in the extreme, and the PTSD associated with it is comparable to that male soldiers experience in combat. 

The preceding fact (above, in italics) made me think of the following sentence.  “The taking of a body in a sexually violent manner is akin to the taking of a body in a physically violent manner.”  Switch out the word “body” with the word “life” and you get an even more potent sentence.  The taking of a life in a sexually violent manner is akin to the taking of a life in a physically violent manner.  Combat trauma, which is often related to the taking of another life or seeing a comrade’s life taken, is akin to the trauma women service members experience during and especially after being raped by another service member.  This is a comparison which I believe cannot be overemphasized.

            Another fact that stood out to me was the reminder that there are, numerically, more men than women who have been subjected to sexualized violence in the military.   And if men have been in the military since its inception, the number of survivors must be absolutely astronomical.  How many suicides have been caused by this and why is no one talking about it? 

            This movie was an extremely potent reminder to me of why the debate about upping female enrollment in the armed forces is so problematic to feminists.  It’s not just the statistical potential for women to become victims of sexualized violence, but the fact that, when examined closely, the military is an arena of human interaction that has basically institutionalized sexualized violence.  Could it even exist without the fundamental tenets which encourage such violence?  Related to this was the study which showed that 15% of service members had attempted or committed an act of sexualized violence BEFORE ENLISTING.  This highlights, in neon, glowing, blindingly bright ink, the idea that something about the entire military structure encourages the traits of people which lead to sexualized violence.  Such a deep-seated problem would surely be nearly impossible to remove entirely.  Or perhaps it would transform the American Military into the proud, upstanding defense force that it claims to be, the force I want it to be

Barklow, T.K., Newson, J.S., Scully, R. K., (Producers), & Dick, K. (Director).  (2012). The Invisible War [Motion picture]. United States: Film Sprout.

International Studies Association Conference - Memories, Narratives and Translation

          I attended a panel entitled “Memories, Narratives and Translation: Gender, Nation and (Post-) Conflict” at the International Studies Association conference on the 3^rd of April, 2013.  The panel was fascinating and surprisingly cohesive, given that the speakers’ topics ranged from the intricacy of differing memories of conflicts to post-disaster drawing projects.  First, the speakers presented their papers (and/or projects) in an 8 min speed-through.  Then Professor Wibben offered critiques and compliments of their papers.  Then the panel was opened up for questions and discussion.  This format allowed the audience to get a glimpse of the individual projects but the purpose seemed more to facilitate connection and discussion between the panelists and other academics in the audience. 

            Some common themes included: silencing, and the subtle but serious difference between staying silent and being silenced, examining survivors of sexualized violence as whole, complex beings, not just “rape victims,” and of course, debate about the topic of the connected series of panels; feminist security studies, and how they differ from traditional IR security studies.

            One panelist stuck out to me in particular: Sungju Park-Kang (see link at bottom of post.)  “Fictional IR” is a term that this scholar has coined to cover as he says, “all of IR, really.”  By “fictional IR” he is referring to the methods all scholars employ when looking at data, and inventing a narrative that connects the data points.  No matter how well-researched, or how massive the amount data one can gather concerning a particular event, one can never truly step inside the shoes of another human, never really understand how they were feeling or exactly what their motivations were.  So in a very real way, all “history” is, actually, “fictional.”  This is especially true when one is writing about a culture or time period dissimilar to one’s own, because one must do a great deal of projecting, a great deal of imagining to understand why a person from that culture or time period performed their actions in the precise manner that they did. 

Perhaps it is a slightly obtuse concept, but I found it to be an extremely helpful framework for analyzing the concept of the “feminist narrative” which we have referred to so often in our course.  As per my understanding, a feminist narrative approach to research involves paying attention to and documents the narratives that have been dismissed by more traditional and male-centric researchers, and then analyzing those narratives to broaden and often critic the formerly uncontested narrative of “what happened.”  Park-Kang’s theory of Fictional IR helps me to compare traditional and feminist narratives in order to draw my own nuanced conclusions.

http://www.globalstudies.gu.se/english/staff/park-kang/

USF Global Women's Rights Forum, Panel: Sisters in Spirit

Speakers: Toni R. Battle (Baptist and Native American faith traditions), Mary Waskowiak (Catholic faith tradition), Bhawana Kamil (Islamic faith tradition).

As an agnostic leftist with a fiercely agnostic upbringing, I'll admit that I was reluctant to attend this particular panel, but as it was the only one that fit in my schedule, I showed up, ready for uncritical panderings and protestations of faith.

What I encountered, however, was a profoundly moving dialogue consisting of a mixture of personal narrative and political opinion that explored a wide range of ways in which the panelists' spiritual beliefs affected their work.  There was a really moving sense of honesty present in the room.  I came to understand that for these women, the call to do social justice work came first, and their spiritual beliefs were simply a continuation of their work, spirituality and social justice synergistically informing their lives.

I was fascinated by the crossover between their views, methods and personal stories, given that they were all in different disciplines and from different faith backgrounds.  It reminded me of a quote from the introduction to a book by Sanam Anderlini, “Although their motivations and ideologies may differ, their vision and demands for the future often converge…They emphasize a holistic notion of peace, defined not just in military security and political terms but also in terms of human security, rooted in a combination of political, economic, personal, community and environmental factors” (p. 9, 2007).

This forum also connected well to the work that Ann Jones did with her Global Crescendo project.  The telling, and most importantly, the sharing, of stories is an intrinsically human activity and can allow us to make deep connections with other humans.  These deep connections, communicated through photo work or live speech, can remind us in an extremely effective way that violence against any one person is violence against a whole network of people, extending all the way back to ourselves.

Anderlini, S. N. (2007). Women Building Peace: What they do, why it Matters. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

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

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.