Men's patriotic wars against women's intimate lives : patriarchy, the institution of heterosexuality and patriotism

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the way in which structural violence, globalisation and patriotism intersect. For many years women's groups and feminists of many persuasions have demonstrated for peace, but calls for peace are rarely heeded. The many-headed monster of globalisation has become a behemoth of destruction with a compliant media mouthpiece as one of its key weapons. Feminists in peace time struggle to be heard, and the difficulty of this has escalated since 2001 in the Western European-derived cultures where there has been a resurgence of calls for patriotism. There are many reasons why feminists are suspicious of patriotism. The first is the way in which patriotism is a bulwark for patriarchy. Women are called up to assist "their men and their country". In this paper, I identify a number of areas in which women's lives are negatively affected by patriotism and war. Among them are increased sexual violence; increased "accidental deaths" because of the proliferation of small arms; "collateral damage" through high levels of casualties in the civilian population; verbal battery and the concomitant increase in vilification of women both linguistically and through pornographic images; normalisation of torture and rape of those women who resist patriotism - those who promote peace and feminism - among them lesbians and refugees; and the dispossession of indigenous and traditional women whose ownership of land depends on customary law, and direct and continuing connection with the land.