Abstract
We live in media-saturated societies, and media organizations now have unprecedented power to shape our world views, influence our behavior and provoke extreme reactions. Reading Betty Reardon’s groundbreaking monograph, Sexism and the war system (1996), in the context of 2018, I was struck by the parallels between what she identified as the ‘patriarchal war system’ and what I contemporarily refer to as the ‘global patriarchal media system’. This is how I would describe the male-dominated media ownership system that produces content and communications infused with stereotypical representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, socio-economic status and abilities, whilst concurrently reinforcing and normalizing inequalities and injustices.
Sally McLaren, Adjunct, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, Australia; Email: sallyjmclaren@gmail.com.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
In January 2019 this was exemplified by the sensational backlash against the Gillette television commercial, which had aimed to draw attention to toxic masculinity and the sexual harassment of women. Instead, rightwing political groups, conservative media and men’s rights activists called for a boycott of the brand, prompting some to show images of themselves on social media platforms symbolically destroying their razors. Gillette did not withdraw the commercial and it has been viewed more than 14 million times on Youtube.
- 2.
A European environmental activist and academic recently said to me that fighting for gender equality is not as urgent or important as dealing with climate change. I responded that perhaps we would not be in this mess if we had gender equality. Gender equality does not necessarily preclude war and natural disaster in a patriarchal system, but this anecdote illustrates the failure of some educated Western elites to consider the relevance of gender in policymaking, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
References
Alison, M. (2004). Women as agents of political violence: Gendering security. Security Dialogue, 35(4), 447–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010604049522.
Anderson, R. (2005). Gendered media culture and the imagery of war. Feminist Media Studies, 5(3), 367–370.
Byerly, C. M. (2013). The geography of women and media scholarship. In K. Ross (Ed.), The handbook of gender, sex, and media (pp. 3–19). Malden: Wiley.
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19, 829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639.
Connell, R. W., & Pearse, R. (2015). Gender in world perspective (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Enloe, C. (2016). Globalization and militarism: Feminists make the link (2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Fruhstuck, S. (2017). “…And my heart screams”: Children and the war of emotions. In S. Fruhstuck & A. Walthall (Eds.), Child’s play: Multi-sensory histories of children and childhood in Japan (pp. 181–201). Oakland: University of California Press.
Gallagher, M. (2001). Gender setting: New agendas for media monitoring and advocacy. London: Zed Books/World Association for Christian Communication.
Gallagher, M. (2005). Beijing’s legacy for gender and media. Gender and Media Monitor.
Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gill, R. (2011). Sexism reloaded, or, it’s time to get angry again! Feminist Media Studies, 11(1), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2011.537029.
Hirsch, A. (2019, February 13). Nationalist strongmen are bent on controlling women’s bodies. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com.
hooks, B. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. New York: Routledge.
McCormack, G. (2016). Japan: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s agenda. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 14(21). Retrieved from https://apjjf.org.
Parashar, S. (2009). Feminist international relations and women militants: Case studies from Sri Lanka and Kashmir. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 22(2), 235–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557570902877968.
Reardon, B. A. (1993). Women and peace: Feminist visions of global security. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Reardon, B. A. (1996). Sexism and the war system. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Reardon, B. A. (2001). Education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Reardon, B. A. (2018). On frameworks and purposes: A response to Dale Snauwaert’s review of Jeffrey Sachs’ “The age of sustainable development”: Patriarchy is the problem. Global Campaign for Peace Education. http://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/patriarchy-is-the-problem/.
Reardon, B. A. (2019). Women and human security: A feminist framework and critique of the prevailing patriarchal security system. In B. A. Reardon & A. Hans (Eds.), The gender imperative: Human security vs state security (2nd ed., pp. 7–36). New York: Routledge.
Redden, E. (2018, October 17). Hungary officially ends gender studies programs. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com.
Riordan, E. (2004). The woman warrior: A feminist political economic analysis of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In K. Ross & C. M. Byerly (Eds.), Women and media: International perspectives (pp. 81–103). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Ross, K. (2010). Gendered media: Women, men and identity politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Schubart, R. (2009). Introduction. In R. Schubart, F. Virchow, D. White-Stanley, & T. Thomas (Eds.), War isn’t hell, it’s entertainment: Essays on visual culture and the representation of conflict (pp. 1–10). Jefferson: McFarland & Company.
60 Minutes Australia. (2014). The brave female fighters winning the war against ISIS [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com.
Tehranian, M. (2004). War, media, and propaganda: An epilogue. In Y. R. Kamalipour & N. Snow (Eds.), War, media, propaganda: A global perspective (pp. 237–242). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Thomas, T. (2009). Gender management, popular culture, and the military. In R. Schubart, F. Virchow, D. White-Stanley, & T. Thomas (Eds.), War isn’t hell, it’s entertainment: Essays on visual culture and the representation of conflict (pp. 97–114). Jefferson: McFarland & Company.
Tickner, J. A. (2001). Gendering world politics: Issues and approaches in the post-Cold War era. New York: Columbia University Press.
Vavrus, M. D. (2002). Postfeminist news: Political women in media culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Vavrus, M. D. (2017). The challenge of warrior women: Gender, race and militarism in media. In R. A. Lind (Ed.), Race and gender in electronic media (pp. 72–88). New York: Routledge.
Wharton, A. S. (2012). The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research (2nd ed.). Malden: Wiley.
Wong, T. (2016, March 27). Descendants of the Sun: The Korean military romance sweeping Asia. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McLaren, S. (2019). Media, Sexism and the Patriarchal War System: Why Media Literacy Matters to Peace Education. In: Snauwaert, D. (eds) Exploring Betty A. Reardon’s Perspective on Peace Education. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18387-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18387-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18386-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18387-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)