107 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
The War on Women
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A Feminist Perspective on Militarism * by Flick Ruby
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Stop the War on Women, the slogan for International Women's day this year
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is appropriate considering that every three minutes a woman is beaten by
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her male partner - a man who often claims to love her. Every five minutes
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a women is raped, and they call that "making love" too. and every ten
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minutes a girl is molested, sometimes by a relative, perhaps her own
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father. The violence mounts. "Every few seconds in America, a woman is
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slapped, slugged, punched, chopped, slashed, choked, kicked, raped,
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sodomised, mutilated or murdered. She loses an eye, a kidney, a baby, a
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life. That's a fact." writes Ann Jones in Take Back the Night. "And if
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the statistics are any where near right, at least one of every four women
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reading this paragraph will feel that fact through first hand experience."
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For women peace activists there is a paradox of seeing yourself at war, yet
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calling yourself a peace woman.
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The battle field in the war against women is in the workplace on the
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streets, in our homes, in our most intimate relationships. It is physical
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and psychological, visited upon us by others and internalised within
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ourselves. It crosses class and racial boundaries, compounding other
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oppressions. It is manifestsed in atomc power development and economic
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destruction. The mentality that builds nuclear wepons is the same one that
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rapes women and destroys the natural envoronment. No political philosophy
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or strategy for peace can be complete without addressing sexual politics.
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If the peace movement is to be successful in putting an end to war, it must
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work to eliminate the sex role system which is killing us all by rewarding
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dominating aggressive behavoiur in men.
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If we are to be consistent in our opposition to violence, we must address
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violence against women.
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If we are truly committed to social justice, we must join the movement for
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women's liberation.
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If we wish to create social change and revolution we must commit ourselves
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to overthrowing patriarchy.
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The propaganda of war promotes national unity making it as priority which
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can silence women critical of patriarchal practices and attitudes. Certain
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'problems' (to do with the national interest ie economic and terratorial
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concerns of the state) are given propority over all other concerns,
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legitimising the use of violence and suppression of dissent to solve them.
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What happens to women (indeed anyone not directly benefiting from these
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aims) in the process is considered irrelevant by the war mongers. This
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silencing of women needs to be stronlgy counteracted by the peace movement.
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We need to intergrate a feminist perspective into all our anti-war
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critiques and actions if we are not merely to duplicate the existing social
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relation which lead to militarism in the first place.
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Patriarchy is a set of social relations between men, which have a material
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base, and through a hierarchy creates solidarity among men that enables
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them to dominate women.
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Feminism and the Peace Movement
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Women have been of concern to the military as a threat to this male
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solidarity an annoyance and intrusion (not suprisingly, the Defence forces
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are still not sen as a women's place, although more recently women hace
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been accomodated if they can fit in and act like men). More commonly,
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women are a useful labour and sex resource for all men, particularly in the
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military. War is seen by many men as even more of an exuse to rape and
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kill women and children.
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Women are also used as a symbol of justification foe war. Women need
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protection as they are the nations most valuable possession, the principle
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vehicle for transmitting the nations values, bearers of future generation
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are most vulnerable to defilement and are most suceptible to assimilation.
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The patriarchal military/industrial/bureaucratic/academic complex's need
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for brain power, resources and authortiy so thoroughtly distorts the
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economiy and the polity that no goals of social justice can ever really be
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achieved. Women are most hurt when social programs are cut because they
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are most reliable upon state welfare. In 1986 the world was spending
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$A2.63 million on the military which means that about three or four years
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of a persons working life is spent on war tax. The economic implications
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of miltarisation are enormous but an economic analysis alone leaves
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untouched some of the most powerful ideological and private processes that
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perpetuate militarism.
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The military play a large role in defining women as the concept of
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masculinity promoted by the military only makes sense if supported by the
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complementary concept of femininity. Feeling a menber of a superior group
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is what men get from their treatment of women, what nation states get from
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having an enemy. In the military, 24 hour masculine behaviour is expected.
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Violence is not just a male practice but for men it is bound up with their
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identity and the military is where this can be seen overtly. The military
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is the government or it is a large section of the ruling class which lets
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the government govern. The mliitary interprets "national security" in its
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own interests to mean, not only protection of the state and its
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hierarchies, but also the preservance of the existing male order.
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Subjugaing someone becomes the necessary proof of manhood. The procatice
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of rape is premeditated act during wartime as a way of humiliating the
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enemy by violating his "property". Essentially women's bodies become a
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battleground.
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The historical links between feminism and pacifism are counterbalanced when
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women have exbraced revolution with hope and war with enthusiasm. There
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has not been a consistent women's response to war but I argue that their
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response has largely been constructed for them by the patriarchy.
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Overwhelmingly women do not want war.
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Feminsim is a political position that accepts anger as part of its theory
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and practice. By becoming angry we make ourselves equal to the persons we
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judge and assert the validity of our own standards and views. For far too
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long women have been forced to be submissive and supportive of men.
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Indeeed it has in many ways been seen as awomen's role to stay at home
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praying for peace, while the men go off to fight the 'important battles'.
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Saying no to war should not be an act of sublimation. Our caring for life
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on earth is not soft or sentimental. It is determined, realistic and
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political. We are not just angry, but angry about...and the difference can
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be crucial.
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Women are angry about the patriarchal miltary complex and will be
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demonstrating this at AIDEX.
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