Feminism and War

by Mohanty, Chandra Talpade; Pratt, Minnie Bruce; Riley, Robin L.

• ISBN13: 9781848130197
• ISBN10: 1848130198
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-15
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

Women - both within and without the United States - are being dramatically affected by war as currently waged by that country. But there has been little public space for dialogue about the complex relationship between feminism, women, and U.S. war. The editors have brought together a diverse set of scholars and activists who examine the questions raised by ongoing U.S. military initiatives. These theorists and organizers develop an anti-racist, feminist politics that brings to the foreground an analysis both of imperialist power and forms of resistance to it. The questions they raise include: what are the implications of an imperial nation state laying claim to women's liberation and did U.S. intervention and invasion in fact result in liberation for women in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Author Biography

Robin Riley is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Syracuse University.  She is co-editor with Naeem Inayatullah of Interrogating Imperialism:  Conversations on Gender, Race & War (Palgrave 2006). 

Chandra Talpade Mohanty is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Dean’s Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University. She is the author of  Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Duke University Press, 2003). 

Minnie Bruce Pratt is Professor of Women's & Gender Studies and Writing at Syracuse University. Her essay, “Identity: Skin  Blood  Heart,” about coming to consciousness as a Southern-born white anti-racist, has become a feminist classic. She is the author of six books of poetry, including Walking Back Up Depot Street (Pitt, 1999)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: feminism and US wars - mapping the ground	p. 1
Feminist geopolitics of war
A vocabulary for feminist praxis: on war and radical critique	p. 19
Resexing militarism for the globe	p. 27
Feminists and queers in the service of empire	p. 47
Interrogating Americana: an African feminist critique	p. 56
In praise of Afrika's children	p. 68
What's left? After 'imperial feminist' hijackings	p. 75
Feminists mobilizing critiques of war
Women-of-color veterans on war, militarism, and feminism	p. 93
Decolonizing the racial grammar of international law	p. 103
The other v-word: the politics of victimhood fueling George W. Bush's war machine	p. 117
Deconstructing the myth of liberation @ riverbendblog.com	p. 131
'Rallying public opinion' and other misuses of feminism	p. 143
Women's struggles and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Afghan women: the limits of colonial rescue	p. 161
Gendered, racialized, and sexualized torture at Abu Ghraib	p. 179
Whose bodies count? Feminist geopolitics and lessons from Iraq	p. 194
'Freedom for women': stories of Baghdad and New York	p. 207
The war on Iraq	p. 216
Feminists organizing against imperialism and war
Violence against women: the US war on women	p. 219
'We say code pink': feminist direct action and the 'war on terror'	p. 224
Women, gentrification, and Harlem	p. 232
US economic wars and Latin America	p. 238
Feminist organizing in Israel	p. 243
Reflections on feminism, war, and the politics of dissent	p. 250
Feminism and war: stopping militarizers, critiquing power	p. 258
Prosaic poem	p. 264
Action: end US wars now!	p. 266
Afterword	p. 267
About the contributors	p. 271
Index	p. 274
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