ebook img

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

192 Pages·2018·2.66 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

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

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

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.