Abstract
In this chapter the author attempts to show the feminist interpretation of various phenomena proper to security studies. She seeks to demonstrate that the presentation of security issues in political science is still dominated by the so-called male skew, which perceives the history of political violence as being “his,” not “her” story. The chapter highlights this issue by referring to armed conflicts and the problem of the resexualization of violence. Women are excluded, overlooked, and/or relegated to the role of passive security objects, most often as victims in this narrative. In criticizing this approach, the author calls for the use of the feminist lens. She also demonstrates gender specificity in the analysis of the security issues—and particularly of threats. She assumes than it can contribute to the development of studies on security and on political violence and thus, to increase the resilience of the state.
Security is a chimera
Greer (1970, p. 341)
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Notes
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United Nations (1991). For contemporary statistics see the website of the United Nations High-Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), http://unhcr.gov. Accessed on 2 April 2018.
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“To make sense of today’s complex world, we need to understand that many decisions have not only gendered consequences but gendered causes—that is, causes flowing form presumptions or fears about femininity or masculinity” (Enloe 2007, p. 17).
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Gasztold, A. (2020). Feminism and the Question of Security. In: Feminist Perspectives on Terrorism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37234-7_3
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