Popular in Social Sciences

Books

City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island

Independent Scholar David A. Campbell

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Economics

Gender and Economics

University of California Santa Barbara Shelly Lundberg

American Politics

Keeping the Republic

Boston College Marc Landy

Banks and Policy Organisations

Greening the financial sector

European Investment Bank Matteo Ferrazzi

British Politics

Entrepreneurial thinking: the politics and practice of policy impact

University of Sheffield Matthew Flinders

Culture and Society

Carceral Entrapments: Views from the Prison/Street Interface in India

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Mahuya Bandyopadhya

At War with Women: Military Humanitarianism and Imperial Feminism in an Era of Permanent War

View more insights in Books - Social Sciences - Political Science - Politics and Gender

View more figures from University of Sheffield

View the page of Jennifer Greenburg

Read the Study

· Tools Cite Embed

At War with Women reveals how post-9/11 politics of gender and development have transformed US military power. Jennifer Greenburg critically interrogates a new imperial feminism and its central role in securing US hegemony.

Image courtesy of interviewee. August 14, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month.

Workspace

Faculti AI is thinking...

< >

Summary
Related Studies
Faculti AI
Key Points
Key Quotes
Translate
Transcript

Export as PDF

This video is a transcript of an interview discussing the book "At War with Women" by Jennifer, centering on the intersection of international development, military strategies, and gender dynamics in the context of post-9/11 conflicts, specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jennifer explains her motivation for the book, highlighting her experiences in international development where anti-terrorism justifications began to dominate funding and practices related to supporting women.

She notes the military's use of humanitarian projects as a public relations tool to mask the violence of war, arguing that these militarized development practices are inherently violent. Jennifer provides insights into how counterinsurgency strategies emerged from historical imperial practices, emphasizing that the U.S. military's new strategies attempted to engage women as vital to winning local support, often employing female soldiers to interact with Afghan women in homes.

She discusses her research methodology, including interviews with female soldiers and defense contractors, emphasizing the historical context and how gender constructs influenced military interactions and perceptions. The concept of "new military femininity" emerges, representing a contradictory inclusion of women into a traditionally male-dominated institution while reinforcing stereotypes.

Jennifer urges readers to critically assess claims of military interventions framed as promoting women's rights, advocating for awareness of who these actions truly benefit and the violence they may perpetuate. She concludes with a call to recognize the disconnect between feminist ideals and military violence, which often exacerbates the suffering of women and gender-diverse individuals in war-torn regions.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Shift in Development Funding**: The author observed a notable shift in the mid-2000s where funding for international development projects had to be justified in the convideo of anti-terrorism, intertwining humanitarian efforts with military objectives.

2. **Militarization of Humanitarianism**: The video discusses how the military utilized development and humanitarian initiatives as a public relations exercise to distract from wartime violence, and how this led to a misunderstanding of militarized development as constitutive of violence.

3. **Role of Women in Counterinsurgency**: The research highlights the adoption of female soldiers in military strategies, particularly in Afghanistan, as they were deployed to engage with women in Afghan households, leveraging perceived feminine qualities to foster support for the U.S. military presence.

4. **Historical Convideo of Military Strategy**: There is a discussion on how post-World War II military strategies, particularly counterinsurgency, were influenced by historical colonial practices and how the U.S. military's understanding of these histories shaped current interventions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

5. **Imperial Feminism**: The author introduces the concept of "new military femininity" and "imperial feminism," exploring how female soldiers saw themselves as symbols of empowerment while simultaneously reinforcing gender and racial stereotypes. This duality indicates a tension between women's inclusion in military roles and the persistent inequalities within military structures.

Export as PDF
Here are some key quotes from the video :

1. **On the shift in funding for development:**
"What I really noticed... was a shift... where funding for development really had to be justified in the name of anti-terrorism."

2. **On the relationship between military actions and humanitarian projects:**
"A lot of the way that was understood was really as the humanitarian activity being a kind of public relations exercise... to distract from the actual violence of war."

3. **On militarized development and humanitarianism:**
"We don't have a way to understand militarized forms of development and humanitarianism as constitutive of violence in themselves."

4. **On the post-9/11 convideo:**
"This book is grounded in the post nine 11 period... as part of a longer history of imperialism."

5. **On the realization of the military:**
"The US military realized that its initial approach was not working... it was actually fomenting an insurgency."

6. **On the role of female soldiers:**
"The U.S. military... use their female soldiers to go into Afghan homes... to fight against the Taliban."

7. **On the implications of female soldiers' roles:**
"These women were not able to [connect service to injuries]... because they were not recognized in official records."

8. **On researching military and development linkages:**
"What I really tried to do was look at the histories being taught in military classrooms... to better understand the way that they bear on the present."

9. **On the concept of a new military femininity:**
"What is being valued when women went into Afghan homes... is in terms of these very essentialized characteristics of femininity."

10. **On the relationship between empowerment and imperialism:**
"A new imperial feminism in which female soldiers came to see themselves as these feminist trailblazers... for Afghan women."

11. **On the challenge of feminist frameworks:**
"The work that they were doing... did not fit within this conceptual framework that we have in feminist geography."

12. **On colorblindness within the military:**
"I talk about that as a form of colorblindness that actually erases the ways that racial supremacy operates within the military."

13. **On the intersection of feminism and military violence:**
"I hope from the book that the incommensurability is clear of feminism with military violence that makes life worse for women and gender diverse people that are ravaged by war."

These quotes encapsulate various themes related to the intersection of feminism, military intervention, and the implications for women and populations affected by war.

Export as PDF
Here are some similar articles that explore themes related to gender dynamics, military interventions, and international development in conflict zones:

1. **"Gender and Counterinsurgency: The Role of Women in Military Operations"** - This article examines how gender roles are constructed and utilized within military operations, particularly in counterinsurgency efforts, and discusses the implications for women in conflict zones.

2. **"Militarized Humanitarianism: The Role of Development Aid in U.S. Foreign Policy"** - This piece delves into how humanitarian aid has often been co-opted by military strategies, exploring the impacts on local populations, particularly women, in conflict-affected areas.

3. **"Imperial Feminism? A Critical Analysis of Women's Rights in the Convideo of U.S. Foreign Policy"** - This article critiques the narrative that U.S. military interventions promote women's rights, arguing that such claims often serve imperialist agendas rather than genuine advocacy for gender equality.

4. **"The Politics of Feminist Anti-Militarism: Examining Gender and Militarization"** - This work focuses on feminist perspectives on militarization, analyzing how military practices can undermine women's rights while also discussing grassroots feminist movements that resist such narratives.

5. **"War, Women, and Development: The Challenges of Gender in Post-Conflict Reconstruction"** - This article discusses the intersection of gender and development in post-conflict settings, highlighting the challenges women face and the complexities of implementing gender-sensitive policies in reconstruction efforts.

6. **"The Gendered Dimensions of Military Conflict: Understanding Women's Roles in War and Peacebuilding"** - This piece examines the roles women play in both conflict and peacebuilding, challenging traditional narratives that often overlook their agency and contributions.

7. **"Critical Reflections on Gender and Security: The Feminist Perspective"** - This article provides a feminist critique of security studies, focusing on how traditional security frameworks often marginalize gender issues and the implications for military practice and policy.

8. **"War and Gender: The Dynamics of Gender Relations in Conflict Zones"** - This research investigates how war influences gender relations, particularly the ways in which male-dominated military structures impact women's experiences and rights during and after conflicts.

These articles should provide a broader convideo and a variety of perspectives on the issues discussed in Jennifer's book and interview.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.105 --> 00:02.565
Became interested in this topic when I was actually

00:02.565 --> 00:04.525
working in the international development sector

00:04.665 --> 00:06.925
before I started doing academic research.

00:07.665 --> 00:10.045
And what I really noticed this would've been sort

00:10.045 --> 00:12.845
of the mid two thousands, was a shift that seemed

00:12.845 --> 00:16.645
to be happening where funding for development really had

00:16.645 --> 00:19.125
to be justified in the name of anti-terrorism.

00:20.145 --> 00:23.165
So projects like, support for agriculture

00:23.425 --> 00:26.125
for rural women in West Africa,

00:26.265 --> 00:28.885
in a funding proposal would be explained in terms

00:28.885 --> 00:30.605
of an anti-terrorism activity.

00:31.865 --> 00:34.405
And then once I started getting into the literature on this

00:34.405 --> 00:35.925
topic, a lot

00:35.925 --> 00:38.565
of it was really about the military itself using

00:38.565 --> 00:40.125
development and humanitarianism.

00:40.225 --> 00:43.725
So doing things like building wells in East Africa was a big

00:43.725 --> 00:45.765
topic at the end of the 2010s,

00:45.925 --> 00:47.605
building schools in Afghanistan

00:48.385 --> 00:50.365
and a lot of in political geography.

00:50.705 --> 00:52.805
Um, and in development studies, a lot of the way

00:52.805 --> 00:56.125
that was understood was really as the humanitarian

00:56.885 --> 01:00.725
activity being a kind of public relations exercise,

01:00.775 --> 01:04.365
often to, US residents, the,

01:04.365 --> 01:06.765
the American public at home,

01:07.785 --> 01:10.405
to distract from the actual violence of war.

01:10.865 --> 01:14.565
And so what we're left with in that framework is really

01:15.355 --> 01:16.525
that we don't have a way

01:16.545 --> 01:18.765
to understand militarized these forms

01:18.785 --> 01:19.925
of militarized development

01:19.925 --> 01:22.805
and humanitarianism as constitutive

01:22.805 --> 01:24.005
of violence in themselves.

01:24.705 --> 01:26.205
So with this book, I really wanted

01:26.205 --> 01:29.645
to understand these practices in a grounded way,

01:29.645 --> 01:31.685
with particular attention to how

01:32.415 --> 01:35.525
those executing the projects understood them,

01:35.545 --> 01:38.085
and how the politics of difference, the meanings of race

01:38.185 --> 01:39.365
and gender and other forms

01:39.385 --> 01:41.685
of difference were really being redefined

01:41.685 --> 01:43.005
through these sorts of activities

01:43.005 --> 01:44.405
during the course of the War on Terror.

01:44.555 --> 01:47.125
This book is grounded in the post nine 11 period

01:47.695 --> 01:49.805
where I understand that very recent

01:49.945 --> 01:52.765
and ongoing period as part of a longer history

01:52.765 --> 01:55.525
of imperialism and something

01:55.585 --> 01:58.645
that's distinctive about the post-World War II political

01:58.845 --> 02:01.565
economic order is that unlike 19th

02:01.665 --> 02:04.085
and early 20th century forms of imperialism

02:04.435 --> 02:06.485
that were very much rooted in this competition over

02:06.845 --> 02:10.445
territory post-World War II politics

02:10.865 --> 02:13.765
and economics operated very differently with political

02:13.785 --> 02:15.605
and economic measures of control

02:16.105 --> 02:19.685
and consent to that control playing a really important role

02:19.865 --> 02:23.005
in how power operated in this post-World War II world.

02:23.965 --> 02:26.465
So within this broader context, I'm writing about a moment

02:26.685 --> 02:28.625
during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,

02:29.175 --> 02:32.785
when the US military realized that its, its initial approach

02:33.405 --> 02:35.025
was not working that soon

02:35.025 --> 02:37.185
after the invasion of Iraq in 2003,

02:37.805 --> 02:39.945
it was actually fomenting an insurgency.

02:40.905 --> 02:44.525
So by the mid two thousands, we see the US military turn

02:44.525 --> 02:47.845
to an old military strategy of counterinsurgency.

02:48.825 --> 02:50.485
And that strategy just doesn't,

02:50.485 --> 02:53.565
doesn't just focus on killing as many enemies as possible,

02:54.025 --> 02:56.445
but it allegedly focuses on building support

02:56.585 --> 02:58.725
for the occupation among

02:58.725 --> 03:00.485
The kind of, among the population.

03:01.025 --> 03:03.925
Um, so it focuses on building support for the occupation

03:03.985 --> 03:05.965
and kind of extinguishing popular support

03:06.065 --> 03:07.445
for the so-called insurgents.

03:08.065 --> 03:09.965
And this is where we heard the phrase winning hearts

03:09.965 --> 03:12.045
and minds come back into the public fray.

03:12.945 --> 03:14.285
So importantly,

03:14.285 --> 03:17.045
this is a military strategy honed in colonial

03:17.585 --> 03:20.245
counterinsurgencies and the writing team

03:20.505 --> 03:24.645
for the counterinsurgency field manual read about the French

03:25.405 --> 03:26.925
colonial occupation in Algeria

03:27.025 --> 03:28.925
and its colonial counterinsurgency,

03:29.265 --> 03:30.805
the British dirty wars in Kenya,

03:31.505 --> 03:33.365
the Americans in Haiti and Vietnam.

03:33.985 --> 03:37.645
And I argue that these colonial histories are alive

03:37.865 --> 03:39.925
and that they actually animate the way

03:39.925 --> 03:41.485
that the US military fights.

03:41.485 --> 03:43.285
The post nine 11 wars, the US

03:43.345 --> 03:45.405
and its international partners realized

03:45.475 --> 03:48.525
that it couldn't actually implement this counterinsurgency

03:48.845 --> 03:51.365
strategy without speaking to women and their families.

03:51.905 --> 03:54.765
And that was something that only female soldiers could do.

03:55.585 --> 03:58.965
So this is where we saw the US and then later British

03:59.185 --> 04:02.965
and Australian militaries, use their female soldiers

04:03.145 --> 04:06.325
to go into Afghan homes doing things like trying

04:06.325 --> 04:08.725
to convince women to tell their male relatives

04:09.025 --> 04:10.525
to join the security force

04:10.555 --> 04:13.805
that the US Special Forces was trying to set up,

04:13.805 --> 04:15.045
to fight against the Taliban,

04:15.865 --> 04:19.205
but women were not technically allowed in combat in the

04:19.205 --> 04:20.365
US military at this time.

04:21.065 --> 04:23.605
So there were these administrative kind of workarounds

04:23.875 --> 04:26.605
that meant women were actually deployed alongside special

04:26.605 --> 04:28.485
forces, but when they came home,

04:28.545 --> 04:30.885
it never appeared on their military service record.

04:31.385 --> 04:33.645
And this had a lot of really important implications

04:33.745 --> 04:36.645
for them getting medical care and disability benefits

04:36.915 --> 04:39.445
because you have to ma in the US military, you have

04:39.445 --> 04:41.525
to make a connection between your military service

04:41.985 --> 04:43.805
and any injuries or disabilities

04:43.805 --> 04:45.525
that you came out of the military with.

04:45.745 --> 04:47.285
So these women were not able to do that.

04:47.605 --> 04:49.005
I began doing this research

04:49.145 --> 04:53.125
by interviewing people within an office of the US Agency

04:53.125 --> 04:56.165
for International Development in Washington DC called the

04:56.165 --> 04:57.805
Office of Military Affairs,

04:58.335 --> 05:01.845
which was this represented this new institutional linkage

05:01.845 --> 05:03.365
between the Department of Defense

05:03.465 --> 05:05.525
and the US Agency for International Development.

05:06.065 --> 05:09.165
And I had all of these questions for them, just about

05:09.165 --> 05:12.005
that relationship and learned that a big part of

05:12.005 --> 05:14.645
what they were doing was actually sending contractors

05:15.225 --> 05:18.405
who often worked for, for-profit development organizations,

05:18.875 --> 05:21.005
sending them onto US military bases

05:21.465 --> 05:24.325
and participating in pre-deployment military trainings.

05:24.825 --> 05:28.325
So you had these development professionals whose job it was

05:28.745 --> 05:31.725
to go into a military pre-deployment training for people,

05:32.645 --> 05:34.525
soldiers who were going to Afghanistan at that time

05:34.865 --> 05:36.685
and train them on how to use development

05:36.745 --> 05:38.205
as a counterinsurgency weapon.

05:39.385 --> 05:40.845
And I had so many questions for them

05:40.845 --> 05:41.885
that they ended up just saying,

05:42.145 --> 05:43.605
why don't you come and see for yourself?

05:44.385 --> 05:46.925
Um, and they invited me to shadow them

05:47.025 --> 05:49.085
as they gave these trainings on military bases.

05:49.865 --> 05:52.485
So it was a really unique time where there were a lot

05:52.485 --> 05:54.765
of civilians working on bases that was a big part

05:54.765 --> 05:56.325
of the counterinsurgency strategy.

05:56.785 --> 05:59.485
So it was a kind of a unique, access point that,

05:59.555 --> 06:01.285
that I was able to get at the time

06:01.325 --> 06:02.365
I was doing this research.

06:02.985 --> 06:05.525
And it was through those observations of trainings

06:05.525 --> 06:08.045
that I met these women who were in the trainings

06:08.225 --> 06:10.125
who had either been deployed on female

06:10.145 --> 06:11.245
counterinsurgency teams.

06:11.355 --> 06:13.245
Most of them were called FETs

06:13.245 --> 06:16.085
or female engagement teams at this time,

06:16.085 --> 06:17.765
or they were about to deploy on them

06:17.945 --> 06:20.005
and they were really interested in, in this.

06:20.625 --> 06:24.005
Um, so I was really fascinated by these women, in part

06:24.315 --> 06:27.165
that they had this real commitment to an institution

06:27.795 --> 06:31.605
that had such a poor reputation for its gender politics,

06:33.185 --> 06:37.645
and now really needed women's labor to do the, the work

06:37.645 --> 06:38.645
of counterinsurgency.

06:39.305 --> 06:43.205
So it took, actually eight years it took between I,

06:43.315 --> 06:45.165
when I started that research in 2010

06:45.465 --> 06:48.525
and then in 2018 when I was actually able to interview a lot

06:48.525 --> 06:51.005
of those women because the program, had ended

06:51.065 --> 06:52.845
and they could speak openly about it.

06:53.465 --> 06:55.845
So a lot of the stories of women in the book are from

06:55.845 --> 06:58.765
interviews, of finding them in their own hometowns

06:58.765 --> 06:59.765
and sitting down with them.

07:00.705 --> 07:02.165
And then a third,

07:02.565 --> 07:05.765
a third important methodological aspect of the book that's,

07:05.765 --> 07:07.165
you know, maybe not as exciting to talk about,

07:07.185 --> 07:10.245
but I think is really important is this historiographical

07:10.265 --> 07:13.045
and archival element to my research where

07:13.075 --> 07:16.045
what I really tried to do was look at the histories being

07:16.045 --> 07:17.685
taught in military classrooms

07:18.385 --> 07:20.925
and how the military itself was learning about

07:21.565 --> 07:24.405
colonial histories from Haiti to Algeria to Vietnam,

07:24.555 --> 07:27.205
playing this very active role in the shifts

07:27.205 --> 07:28.365
in policy and practice.

07:28.865 --> 07:30.965
So through various histori, IES

07:30.965 --> 07:32.685
and archives, I trace those histories

07:32.685 --> 07:34.965
to better understand the way that they bear on the present

07:35.565 --> 07:39.085
Feminist scholarship has historically understood military

07:39.085 --> 07:42.805
institutions as masculinist for a lot of good reasons.

07:43.585 --> 07:46.085
But when I discovered in my field work

07:46.265 --> 07:48.365
how women were being used in the Iraq

07:48.365 --> 07:51.405
and Afghanistan wars, the work that they were doing

07:51.745 --> 07:53.165
and the way that they were valued

07:53.765 --> 07:56.485
actually didn't fit within this conceptual framework

07:56.485 --> 07:58.245
that we have in feminist geography,

07:58.565 --> 07:59.885
feminist international relations.

08:00.665 --> 08:03.125
So I talk in the book about a new military femininity,

08:03.505 --> 08:05.925
and what I mean here is that

08:05.925 --> 08:10.005
what is being valued when women went into Afghan homes,

08:10.145 --> 08:12.285
to follow a raid and calm women

08:12.465 --> 08:15.125
and children down, for instance, the way

08:15.125 --> 08:16.845
that they're being valued is in terms

08:16.845 --> 08:20.245
of these very essentialized characteristics of femininity,

08:20.875 --> 08:21.885
such as this assumption

08:21.885 --> 08:24.205
that they have an innate emotional ability

08:24.425 --> 08:28.645
to calm children down or to soothe victims of a home raid.

08:29.385 --> 08:32.645
Um, unimagined softness is another aspect of this.

08:33.865 --> 08:35.965
And so this translated into their interactions

08:35.965 --> 08:38.245
with male soldiers too, as becoming a kind

08:38.245 --> 08:40.165
of emotional confidant alongside the

08:40.165 --> 08:41.285
men that they were deployed with.

08:42.325 --> 08:44.505
And what this really spoke to is that

08:44.665 --> 08:47.025
although women were being included,

08:47.095 --> 08:48.945
this did not represent equality.

08:49.175 --> 08:52.425
Instead it reinforced certain gender stereotypes that often

08:53.005 --> 08:55.885
are, a big part of how inequalities are,

08:56.105 --> 08:57.685
are structurally imbued.

08:58.505 --> 09:02.245
So this new military femininity is part of a broader concept

09:02.905 --> 09:07.325
of a new imperial feminism in which female soldiers came

09:07.325 --> 09:09.725
to see themselves as these feminist trailblazers

09:09.745 --> 09:13.765
for women's right to serve in combat as well as models

09:13.985 --> 09:17.885
of modernity and female empowerment for Afghan women.

09:19.205 --> 09:20.945
But the way that service women came

09:20.945 --> 09:23.865
to see themselves in this way was through a contrast

09:23.975 --> 09:25.865
with this imagined Afghan other

09:26.565 --> 09:29.065
who sometimes they understood as being backward,

09:29.065 --> 09:30.825
living in a different historical time

09:31.445 --> 09:34.825
or other times they understood as a sort of a child

09:34.825 --> 09:37.345
through metaphors of of childhood,

09:37.345 --> 09:39.105
where the military exercised a certain

09:39.105 --> 09:40.345
parental responsibility.

09:41.245 --> 09:43.785
So this is where you can see how these understandings

09:43.845 --> 09:44.945
of gender, race,

09:45.045 --> 09:47.505
and culture together were really crucial to

09:47.505 --> 09:49.145
how US power was operating

09:49.145 --> 09:51.305
during the war on terror precedents.

09:51.525 --> 09:54.265
In fact, I think they were used as justifications

09:54.605 --> 09:59.505
for another way that this counter insurgent mode of war was,

09:59.885 --> 10:02.625
was presented to troops within the US military

10:02.805 --> 10:05.905
and how masculinity was really being upheld even though

10:05.905 --> 10:07.105
women were being included.

10:07.765 --> 10:10.905
And so what I mean by that, to give an example, was

10:10.905 --> 10:14.105
that a lot of, the men deployed on,

10:14.645 --> 10:16.345
on something called civil affairs teams,

10:16.355 --> 10:18.785
which were basically these teams that were supposed to,

10:18.785 --> 10:20.185
that specialize in interacting

10:20.185 --> 10:22.265
with the civilian population in a war zone.

10:22.605 --> 10:24.025
So these were the teams that were going out

10:24.025 --> 10:28.065
and, building schools or doing civilian administration

10:28.325 --> 10:30.705
and working alongside kind of Afghan people.

10:31.485 --> 10:33.105
Um, a lot of the,

10:33.285 --> 10:37.425
the US soldiers deployed on those teams came from artillery

10:37.525 --> 10:40.185
and infantry, these very combat intensive roles

10:40.575 --> 10:42.865
because at that time in the wars, they didn't need

10:42.865 --> 10:45.105
to fill billets in those areas anymore.

10:45.105 --> 10:47.505
They were deploying, they were deploying kind

10:47.505 --> 10:48.505
of different types of soldiers.

10:49.085 --> 10:50.745
But I, you know, I also don't wanna discount,

10:50.745 --> 10:52.225
there was plenty of that type of warfare

10:52.485 --> 10:53.785
and killing still going on.

10:54.365 --> 10:55.945
Um, but that's just to say that some

10:55.945 --> 10:59.705
of the mostly men put on these,

10:59.705 --> 11:01.785
these civil affairs teams didn't wanna be there.

11:02.485 --> 11:04.945
And the way that they explain not wanting to be there,

11:05.125 --> 11:07.985
not wanting to be in those trainings was very much in terms

11:07.985 --> 11:12.785
of masculinity, that they associated combat

11:12.895 --> 11:14.905
with a sort of manliness,

11:14.905 --> 11:16.945
with their jobs in artillery and infantry.

11:17.485 --> 11:21.425
Um, and they did not wanna be doing, this kind of one,

11:21.425 --> 11:23.825
one of my interview subjects in the book called, called it,

11:23.925 --> 11:27.865
sorry, a cell rep

11:27.895 --> 11:29.865
that they were selling something,

11:29.925 --> 11:32.105
and sort of in an in emasculating way.

11:32.645 --> 11:35.625
And so the way that the, the people that, the way

11:35.625 --> 11:37.185
that the trainers, both the contractors

11:37.565 --> 11:38.785
and the,

11:38.965 --> 11:41.585
the military officials doing the training would justify it

11:41.585 --> 11:42.865
would be by looking at history.

11:43.525 --> 11:47.225
And they used a historical figure named Chesy Puller

11:47.245 --> 11:48.785
who was a Marine,

11:48.785 --> 11:51.625
who figured prominently in the US occupation of Haiti.

11:52.045 --> 11:53.365
And the argument was kind of

11:53.365 --> 11:57.045
that even this marine whose biography they had all read,

11:57.105 --> 11:59.885
and who they associated with the sort of manliness,

11:59.905 --> 12:03.445
was setting up a civil police force, was interacting

12:03.445 --> 12:05.205
with civilians and was doing this sort

12:05.205 --> 12:06.365
of counter insurgent war

12:06.365 --> 12:07.885
that they were saying wasn't their job.

12:08.305 --> 12:12.205
So, hi, one way history was used was actually to represent

12:12.205 --> 12:13.285
that this had long been

12:13.395 --> 12:16.525
what the US military had done in its occupations overseas.

12:16.595 --> 12:19.045
Overall, the, the vote kind of looks at constructions

12:19.045 --> 12:21.405
of racial difference both within the US military

12:21.585 --> 12:24.965
and then the military in relation to the Afghan people

12:24.965 --> 12:26.165
with whom they interacted with.

12:26.665 --> 12:29.925
So I spoke about that a bit earlier in terms of a big part

12:30.085 --> 12:33.085
of this concept of a new military femininity is the sort

12:33.085 --> 12:37.565
of way that US military women imagined themselves

12:37.585 --> 12:39.085
as these symbols of empowerment.

12:39.105 --> 12:42.725
But that was always in contrast to a racialized Afghan other

12:43.065 --> 12:44.525
who was seen,

12:44.625 --> 12:47.085
as living in this different historical time who was seen

12:47.085 --> 12:49.405
as having no agency,

12:49.405 --> 12:51.925
and who was kind of created in, in this kind of cultural,

12:51.925 --> 12:54.205
particular cultural and racial way,

12:54.545 --> 12:56.405
and where race is really being defined

12:56.405 --> 12:58.205
through culture, I think in this instance.

12:59.265 --> 13:01.325
But another aspect that I talk about in the book,

13:01.325 --> 13:03.605
which is really, operating through some

13:03.605 --> 13:07.085
of the same modalities is within the US military.

13:08.355 --> 13:11.405
What I encountered in doing this research was, a lot

13:11.405 --> 13:13.245
of enthusiasm to talk about gender,

13:13.425 --> 13:16.005
to talk about women's new role in the military

13:16.425 --> 13:17.525
and how this was changing

13:17.665 --> 13:20.005
and how these female engagement teams were these

13:20.005 --> 13:21.285
symbols for women's rights.

13:21.745 --> 13:24.845
Um, but conversations about race operated very differently.

13:25.705 --> 13:29.885
And the way I heard race explained almost all the time in

13:29.885 --> 13:31.445
terms of a question in relation

13:31.465 --> 13:33.965
to just talking about somebody's own experience.

13:34.145 --> 13:35.725
Um, you know, as a,

13:35.785 --> 13:38.285
as a racial minority in the military would be

13:38.285 --> 13:39.445
that everyone is green.

13:40.065 --> 13:42.685
And what they meant by that is that in the US military,

13:43.305 --> 13:47.645
you are not Asian, black, white,

13:47.905 --> 13:50.565
Latinx, you are geared uniform referring

13:50.565 --> 13:54.205
to the camouflage, ja green that they wear.

13:55.025 --> 13:57.885
And I talk about that as a form of colorblindness

13:58.035 --> 14:00.845
that actually erases the ways that

14:01.985 --> 14:04.605
racial supremacy operates within the military.

14:05.005 --> 14:07.685
I hope readers take away from this book the ability

14:08.035 --> 14:09.325
that when they see claims

14:09.435 --> 14:12.485
that an international intervention is happening in the name

14:12.485 --> 14:15.365
of women's rights, that they're better equipped

14:15.385 --> 14:19.125
to ask which women this is serving, who is excluded,

14:19.505 --> 14:23.285
who is stereotyped, who is exposed to violence here,

14:23.345 --> 14:25.125
who is perpetuating violence

14:26.265 --> 14:29.605
and specific to the allegedly feminist ideals,

14:29.605 --> 14:31.045
that further military violence.

14:32.005 --> 14:35.525
I hope from the book that the Incommensurability is clear

14:36.225 --> 14:40.085
of feminism with military violence that makes life worse

14:40.305 --> 14:43.925
for women and gender diverse people that are ravaged by war.

Faculti AI can make mistakes