The Persistence of Global Masculinism: Discourse, Gender and Neo-Colonial Re-Articulations of Violence

192 Pages·2018·2.66 MB·English

by  Lucy Nicholas

THE PERSISTENCE
OF GLOBAL
MASCULINISM
Discourse, Gender
and Neo-Colonial
Re-Articulations of Violence
Lucy Nicholas
and Christine Agius
The Persistence of Global Masculinism
Lucy Nicholas • Christine Agius
The Persistence of
Global Masculinism
Discourse, Gender and Neo-Colonial
Re-Articulations of Violence
Lucy Nicholas Christine Agius
Department of Sociology Department of Politics and History
Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne, Australia
ISBN 978-3-319-68359-1 ISBN 978-3-319-68360-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68360-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017954971
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Détail de la Tour Eiffel © nemesis2207/Fotolia.co.uk
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
A
cknowledgments
Both authors would like to acknowledge that this book was written on
land stolen from the Wurundjeri people who had been custodians of the
land for so long before invasion. This land was never ceded, the nation of
Australia was founded on genocide and Australia continues to profit from
the exploitation of indigenous people and land.
We would like to thank the many colleagues and friends who have pro-
vided critical feedback and support, especially Sal Clark, Kathryn
Brimblecombe-Fox, Helen Dexter, Hamza bin Jehangir, Joe Mechan,
Richard Pilbeam, Lesley Pruitt, Kirk Scotcher, Sarah Smith, Brent Steele,
Jason Wilson and Dimity Hawkins. Lilian Topic provided a wonderful
space at the ‘beach shack’ where we managed to consolidate many of the
ideas. Our students have also been a source of inspiration and knowledge,
particularly on the habits of tourists and their propensity to fondle the
genitalia of certain symbols of capitalism (thank you Jennifer Lyons and
fellow International Politics students). Thanks also go to family and friends
who put up with a lot of ‘no, nope, can’t do’ when deadlines loomed.
v
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
2 #Notallmen, #Menenism, Manospheres and Unsafe
Spaces: Overt and Subtle Masculinism in Anti-“PC”
Discourse 31
3 Real Victims, Real Men, Real Feminists, Real Sluts.
The Persistent Masculinist Collapse of Gender-based
Violence Discourses 61
4 Muscular Humanitarian Intervention 89
5 Drones and the Politics of Protection 115
6 Conclusion 141
Bibliography 153
Index 185
vii
l A , A
ist of bbreviAtions cronyms or
c
hronology
AI Amnesty International
AIMHS Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies
BIJ The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
CIA Central Intelligence Agency (USA)
CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy
CMC Computer-mediated Communication
DOD Department of Defence (USA)
ECOSOC Economic and Social Council (UN)
EU European Union
FATA Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Pakistan)
FMF Feminist Majority Foundation
FRM Fathers’ Rights Movement
HRW Human Rights Watch
HUMINT Human Intelligence
HW Helsinki Watch
ICC International Criminal Court
ICISS International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty
ILO International Labour Organization
ICT International Criminal Tribunal
ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
JSOC Joint Special Operations Command
LGBTQI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and
Intersex
MGTOW Men Going Their Own Way
MRA Men’s Rights Activists
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
ix
x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONyMS OR CHRONOLOGy
PUA Pick-up Artist
RAF Royal Air Force (UK)
RAWA Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
R2P Responsibility to Protect
RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft
SGBV Sexual and Gender Based Violence
SIGINT Signals Intelligence
SOCMINT Social media intelligence
UN United Nations
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
VAW Violence Against Women
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract This chapter establishes the concept of masculinism, and how it
can be used to account for the persistence of inequalities. It charts how
growing attention to gender equality at the national and international
level disguises the ‘liberal limits’ of this discourse, generating practices that
ostensibly invert this principle. This chapter outlines the genealogy of the
concept of masculinism in feminist ethics, masculinism’s origins in
Enlightenment thought, and our usage of it as a logic or ethos. This mode
of thought is distinguished from embodied masculinity and the ideas of
masculinist protection are developed and extended to examine how mas-
culinism can take on different logics and forms which allow it to be
reworked or ‘replumbed’ in different contexts and across a spectrum of
micro and macro ‘symbolic violence’.
Keywords Masculinism • Protectionism • Liberalism • Feminist ethics •
Discourse • Gender
In recent years, feminism has been subject to seemingly contradictory
challenges. Despite gender equality gaining widespread recognition
through gender mainstreaming1 policies adopted at local, national and
international levels, and wider efforts to improve representation of women
in public office and international fora,2 there has been a notable backlash
against feminism. The rise of right-wing populism in Hungary, Poland,
Turkey, and indeed the USA, has threatened women’s rights. In response,
© The Author(s) 2018 1
L. Nicholas, C. Agius, The Persistence of Global Masculinism,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68360-7_1
2 L. NICHOLAS AND C. AGIUS
a ‘feminist spring’ (Healy 2014; Ford 2016) has emerged. In 2016, mass
protest against the Polish government’s proposal to ban abortion took
place, and in 2017, millions worldwide participated in women’s rallies in
response to the election and inauguration of Donald Trump as President
of the USA, in a show of solidarity and defence of feminist gains and
norms (ABC News 2017).
In this book, we locate these challenges to feminism in two complex
ways that both have masculinist foundations and outcomes—first in the
rejection of feminism as a label and political project, and second, its co-
option in the context of neoliberal individualism. In some political, aca-
demic, and public discourse, feminism has become a troubled label. Whilst
we are witnessing phenomena such as celebrities (Vagianos 2016; Duca
2014; Wasley 2015) and world leaders (Gray 2016) identifying as feminist
by articulating their allegiance to equality (see the #HeforShe campaign),
there remains strong resistance to both the term and some of its precepts,
even when ostensibly advocating feminist agendas. Within the neoliberal
context, Scharff has charted a ‘disidentification’ of young women with
feminism, where feminism is commonly viewed as extreme (2016).
Submissions to the Tumbler page, Women Against Feminism, for instance,
clearly associate feminism with misandry. Australian Foreign Minister,
Julie Bishop (Liberal Party) has rejected the label of feminism as no longer
useful or relevant (Ireland 2014), exemplifying what McRobbie calls ‘anti-
feminist endorsement of female individualisation’ (2004: 257; see also
Duca 2014). Such caution demonstrates that popular conceptions of femi-
nism still reduce it to a problem of individual women and men, culturally
as well as politically. In a Time Out interview, actor Meryl Streep, follow-
ing her backing of greater diversity in the film industry, was asked ‘“Are
you a feminist?” Her response: “I am a humanist, I am for nice, easy bal-
ance.”’ (Child 2015). Similar sentiment was expressed by female actors in
the Hulu miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s
Tale (Smith 2017) who claimed a ‘humanist’, rather than feminist,
message.
This substitution of ‘human rights’ for ‘feminism’ has been identified
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as problematic, because it ‘den[ies] the
specific and particular problem of gender’ (2014: 41). In a Vote Compass
poll conducted in 2016, Australian male support for gender quotas in
parliament was only 22%, with 56% against.3 In the same month, former
Prime Minister Tony Abbott accused the Australian Human Rights
Commission proposal for organisational gender quotas as ‘anti-men’ and