Women, men and militarism

                                               Sommary 


            di Yvonne Deutsch






            In  this reflection on the Militarization of the Mediterranean  Area  I 

            would  like to emphasise the need of a feminist approach to  militarism 

            as a framework in which we base our analysis and action. I also feel  a 

            deep  obligation  to stress that when I speak of men, I  refer  to  the 

            men's establishments, and not to all male individuals. 

            When  I  think about armies and Militarism, pictures of  wars  reappear 

            slowly  in my mind. Men in uniforms, their bodies stressed  and  stern, 

            their  faces sealed. They are interviewed on television, they  are  the 

            heroes,  the  makers of history. The world watches them. What  do  they 

            say? They pronounce themselves on tactics and warfare strategies.  They 

            use  abstract  military  language,  a  dry  and  unfeeling  operational 

            language,  alienated  from life. Targets are bombed,  direct  hits  are 

            scored, missions are completed. The fate of human beings is ignored. 

            What  do  men  hide behind those void of  expression  when  they  speak 

            politics,  economics and army talk? What is hidden in the  pictures  of 

            men  in wars, obedient soldiers, heroes, their barrel erect  and  ready 

            for action? 

            Political reality may in fact be dynamic, however the rules of the game 

            do  not  change. On the face of it there exists awareness of  the  fact 

            that arms must be limited and arms limitation agreements are signed. 

            On the one hand talk of peace, and on the other the development of more 

            sophisticated   weaponary  which  requires  more  and   more   economic 

            investment. Talks of peace alongside acts of war. 

            The  patriarcal history exist in our consciousness and is the  cultural 

            source  of our self-images, our values and politics.  Feminist  thought 

            enables   us  to  re-examine  basic  position  which  are   supposedly, 

            unchallengeable  in an attempt to build a world view which is  free  of 

            inner and outer oppression of both women and men. 

            In  the  West, in respected libraries one can  find  brillant  feminist 

            dissertations,  evidence  of the free feminine self. But not  even  has 

            feminist  discourse became, yet, the canon of society. At home, in  the 

            Middle  East,  the  situation  is even  worse.  The  national  conflict 

            restricts  our freedom - both Israeli and Palestinian - to examine  the 

            political  and  military  structures  in  a  piercing,   uncompromising 

            approach and question their meanings in our lives. 

            I  will  speak only for myself. In the context of the conflict  in  the 

            Middle  East  the  army is seen mainly as a  framework  which  provides 

            defence.  Life in the shadow of the conflict and the violence which  it 

            entails  evoke  the  existential  anxiety. In the  same  way  that  the 

            individual  overcomes  anxiety  by  using  basic  psycological  defence 

            mechanisms  so does the collective. The army managed to  covert  itself 

            into the national defence mechanism of a people who feel under siege. I 

            too,  a woman with pacifist tendencies hope, in the  existing  reality, 

            that  the  army  will  effectively defend me and my  family  in  a  war 

            situation.  We all are captured in the perception of national  security 

            and therefore we fail to discuss the meaning of the existence of armies 

            in all societies and the existence of an armed global network. 

            Within  the  framework  of  the patriarchal  society  men  endowew  the 

            principle  of  defence  of  life  with  a  massive  framework  of  male 

            domination  which oppresses women, (and young men, and those  from  the 

            lower classes) and controls the means of destruction of human kind.  In 

            building  the  army men use, in the name of defence, the  principle  of 

            violence.   The   society's  primal  need  for  defence   creates   the 

            international  legitimacy for the establishment of cultures which  rest 

            on  military strenght and dedicate the greater part of their  resources 

            to  its  construction, its enlargement and the further  development  of 

            means of destruction. 

            Because of the deep saeted human insult due to the fact that our  lives 

            are   not  immortal  and  that  we  are  helpless  in  the   light   of 

            creation/nature  men  developed a grandiose self-image which  tries  to 

            compete  with  higher forces. However this grandiose  self-image  is  a 

            cover  and compensation for the weakness and vulnerability of  society; 

            fear  in  the face of helplessness and lack of meaning. Men,  in  their 

            attempt  to join the immortal, chose distruction and  war.  Patriarchal 

            history  is  full  of feats of warriors and heroes; the  image  of  the 

            warrior  is  central  in  determining human kind and  is  a  source  of 

            inspiration for the creation of human cultures. 

            According to Hoch and Smith, in the pre-patriarchal period religion saw 

            the  presence of women in all parts of the universe, especially in  the 

            movements  of  the  moon.  Images  of  goddesses  were  linked  to  the 

            periodicity  of agriculture, the climate, the protection  of  children, 

            elders,  animals,  journeys on the sea, illness,  health  and  hunting. 

            Women served as priestesess and political leaders, in which the  divine 

            was imbued with feminine attributes, and in which female sexuality  was 

            not  considered  evil.  Up until the Middle  Age  women  conserved  the 

            knowledge   of  natural  child  birth,  healing  and  agriculture   and 

            transferred  it from woman to woman until there began witch  hunts  and 

            medicine  and religion became controlled by men. The removal  of  women 

            from  public  functions  and from the presentation of  them  as  divine 

            derived  from the myth of woman's evil. Female sexuality is still  seen 

            as disruptive, a chaotic force which has to be controlled or coopted by 

            men;  at times she must be cleaned and at times she must be  destroyed. 

            The woman's sexuality and her power of reproduction, and because of  it 

            attributing  to her more connection to nature, leads men to womb  envy. 

            Adrienne  Rich  claims  that  the  womb envy of  the  man  led  to  his 

            transformation into the physical protector of the woman, as a means  of 

            participating in reproduction. According to antropological research  in 

            hunting  and gathering societies there were separate social  structures 

            for  men and women and the men were those who carried out the  acts  of 

            defence. 

            However they never went out to battle without the consent of the  women 

            organizations.  From  that  time to this  day  men  developed  military 

            empires and invested unlimited resources in the development of means of 

            destruction. 

            The  building of the military empires are a mechanism for  compensation 

            for  man's  feelings  of deficiency. Through  it  he  expresses  warped 

            sexuality.  His  primal rage at her sexuality, which  he  considers  as 

            threatening,  and  her  capacity to give birth awaken  his  insinct  of 

            destruction  that  is part of the human experience. By  converting  her 

            womb into an enlisted womb for the military effort, and by  sacrificing 

            their children for the homeland, in order to conserve his status as the 

            leader he expresses an unconscious wish to destroy her womb, the object 

            of  his  envy and so doing he destroys the container of life; it  is  a 

            male  mechanism  of defence against the anxiety  that  his  inferiority 

            feelings  awakens in him. In his rage, due to his unstable feelings  of 

            existence,  man  has  taken  control,  using  the  grandiose  means  of 

            destruction he developed, both of nature and of woman. He is exploiting 

            both  of  them.  He  castrated women's power  of  social  influence  by 

            oppressing her and converting her into a dependent. He grasped from her 

            the  function of initial protection, her knowledge of  agriculture  and 

            healing and made her powerless and dependent on him for survival,  both 

            hers  and  of  her children. In the process  of  developing  his  armed 

            empires  he  reached  the  stage  where,  by  nuclear  weapons,  he  is 

            jeopardising the existence of human kind. 

            But  men, in order to exercise their roles as protectors need the  full 

            participation of women in the roles of the game which they dictate.  As 

            Cynthia  Enloe  says:  "Militaries need women but they  need  women  to 

            behave  as  the gendered women. This always requires  the  exercise  of 

            control... Without assurance that women will play their "proper" roles, 

            the  military  cannot provide men with the incentives to  enlist,  obey 

            orders, give orders, fight, kill, re-enlist, and convince their sons to 

            enlist". 

            The division of roles which developes between the men as protectors and 

            the  women as protected is one of those universal patriarchal  cultural 

            axioms,  hard  to  challenge. According to  Judith  Hicks  Stiehm  this 

            relationship in which the man gives the woman and children  protection, 

            shapes  the  power and psycology of the relationship and is  a  crucial 

            source  for  the  discrimination, oppression and  exploitation  in  the 

            patriarchal  world.  It also accounts for the perception of  women,  by 

            men,  as sexual objects and gives the legitimacy of violating her  body 

            and human dignity. 

            The one hand women in most societies are captured in the common concept 

            of  "national  security" and in unbalanced  relationships  between  the 

            protected and the protector. On the other as Judith Hicks Stiehm  adds: 

            "the  degree of danger posed by a particular threat is usually  defined 

            by  the protector - whose interest it may be to exaggerate the  threat, 

            and   whose   exaggerations  may,  sadly,  increase  or   provrke   the 

            threat...the  protectors  of  one nation share  an  interest  with  the 

            protectors  of  other  nations in  making  protected  populations  feel 

            threatened. 

            Women  who wish to change the status of women in their society must  be 

            bothered  by the fact that the role of defence of the world is  in  the 

            hands of armies. 

            In this political context a Jewish woman in Israel has to struggle with 

            three main obstacles in the process of raising her consciousness on the 

            question of army and militarism: 

            1. A worldwide reality of nation states which rest on military strenght 

            and  settle  dispute  also  by means of war.  War  is  perceived  as  a 

            legitimate means to solve problems which are regarded as just. 

            2.  Living  in  a situation of national and  religious  conflict  which 

            creates  an  existential  fear, and  increases  the  Jewish  historical 

            anxiety. 

            3. Internalising an image of protected women and all that entails  with 

            respect to the feeling of lack of freedom to express an internal  world 

            view on the subjects of war and peace. 

            Internalising a social expectation to contribute to the national effort 

            and to make maternal sacrifices. 

            Women seeking peace are torn between perceiving the army as a  defendor 

            of  "national  security"  and the understanding  of  the  influence  of 

            militaristic   culture   on  social  and  political  values   and   the 

            marginalization  of women. They fit their world view to real  politique 

            which is in conflict with their ideology. They carry within  themselves 

            the  fears, the anxieties, the hurt and the anger and they repress  the 

            influence of the militaristic culture on society. 

            If we, the Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region, choose  to 

            work together against Militarization of our area we also have to  build 

            bridges among ourselves and partnership in trasforming basic values  of 

            the patriarchal society in all our countries and the world. 

            Let  me finish my paper with the same words of Carol  Cohn:  "Feminists 

            and  others who seek a more just and peaceful world, have a  dual  task 

            before us - a deconstructive project and a reconstructive project  that 

            are intimately linked. Our deconstructive task requires close attention 

            to,  and  the dismantling of, technostrategic discourse.  The  dominant 

            voice  of  militarized  masculinity  and  decontextualized  rationality 

            speaks so loudly in our culture, it will remain difficult for any other 

            voices  to be heard until that voice loses some of its power to  define 

            what   we  hear  and  how  we  name  the  world-until  that  voice   is 

            delegitimated. Our reconstructive task is a task of creating compelling 

            alternative  visions  of possible futures, a task  of  recognizing  and 

            developing  alternative  conceptions  of rationality,  and  a  task  of 

            creating   rich   and  alternative  voices  -  diverse   voices   whose 

            conversations with each other will invent those futures."