This article offers a close reading and feminist analysis of servicewomen’s narratives of war to illustrate how personal accounts of women combatants who are part of bigger patriarchal military institutions matter for women and gender equality, and how they improve our understanding of the workings of military structures and the power relations within them during war. It is argued that women’s narratives constitute a gendered experience, and take place in a certain context and under particular circumstances; therefore, such narratives can shift the focus from a general nationalist, masculinist story of war to a personal one that flags women’s contributions and expertise, which might have a transformative and long-lasting impact on gender roles at war and contribute to deconstructing gendered binaries.
Read MoreWhy is the zombie apocalypse so terrible for women?
The zombie apocalypse genre relies on existing political and social conditions to articulate anxieties and vulnerabilities and to present avenues for resistance or, as the author argues is the case for WWZ, to reassert the norms of dominant power structures as a kind of salvation. WWZ is a form of everyday theorizing that highlights the connections between militarism, gender, and ontological insecurity and that asserts the need to return to “traditional” (Western-centric, heteropatriarchal) values to save ourselves.
Read MoreAlexis Henshaw examines the role that gendered labor dynamics within the US foreign policy bureaucracy have played in shaping action on Women, Peace and Security.
Read MoreCladia Brunner takes a closer look at various sexed-gendered positions in the discursive and cognitive processes of legitimating military interventions abroad and political violence at home.
Read MoreGreta Uehling considers how the territorial conflict over Ukraine’s eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk has affected ordinary people in Ukraine through the lens of Café Patriot.
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