A woman did that? The general reaction to women's political violence is still one of shock and incomprehension. Mothers, Monsters, Whores provides an empirical study of women's violence in global politics. The book looks at military women who engage in torture; the Chechen 'Black Widows'; Middle Eastern suicide bombers; and the women who directed and participated in genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Sjoberg & Gentry analyse the biological, psychological and sexualized stereotypes through which these women are conventionally depicted, arguing that these are rooted in assumptions about what is 'appropriate' female behaviour. What these stereotypes have in common is that they all perceive women as having no agency in any sphere of life, from everyday choices to global political events. This book is a major feminist re-evaluation of women's motivations and actions as perpetrators of political violence.
Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores takes the suggestion in Mothers, Monsters, Whores that it is important to see genderings in characterizations of violent women, and to use critique of those genderings to retheorize individual violence in global politics. It begins by demonstrating the interdependence of the personal and international levels of global politics in violent women's lives, but then shows that this interdependence is inaccurately depicted in gender-subordinating narratives of women's violence. Such narratives, the authors argue, are not only normatively problematic on the surface but also intersect with other identifiers, such as race, religion, and geopolitical location.
According to this book, the United States is currently in a moment of crisis, fomented by anxieties around race and gender politics. Unlike fear, which is usually focused on a particular object, anxiety is indeterminate and uncertain. It is also the emotion that led to the election and continued support of President Trump. But Caron Gentry says that we can deal with this anxiety in a productive way. To do so, she turns to Reinhold Niebuhr, whose philosophy of Christian realism has been an abiding influence on foreign policy since the Cold War. According to Niebuhr "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." Anxiety is central to Niebuhr's ideas: an emotion that is abiding because we lack control over the circumstances of our lives. In turn, anxiety prompts a desire for unity, but also an intolerance for difference. Niebuhr suggests that anxiety can be dealt with destructively or creatively, and that power must be balanced to prevent destructive action. Gentry is critical of Niebuhr, saying that he gives in to destructive tendencies in humans by elevating power above other, more creative solutions. In This American Moment, she offers feminist Christian realism as an alternate approach to anxiety in international politics. Gentry's feminist Christian realism differentiates itself from Niebuhr's Christian realism by re-engaging the importance of love and relationships over power. It suggests that we can arrive at creative solutions to anxiety through a conversation about the imago dei and the inherent commitments to community borne of one's relationship with God, including the recognition of obligation in the face of vulnerability. Throughout Gentry applies her ideas to the problems of police brutality, women's reproductive health, and the rise in fascist politics.
Disordered Violence looks at how gender, race, and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings of terrorism as irrational, immoral and illegitimate. Caron Gentry examines the profiles of 8 well-known terrorist actors, including Andreas Baader, Bernardine Dohrn, Leila Khaled, Dhanu, Anders Breivik, Nidal Hasan and Aafia Siddiqui. Gentry looks for gendered, racial, and sexualised assumptions in how their stories are told. Additionally, she interrogates how the current counterterrorism focus upon radicalisation is another way of constructing terrorists outside of the Western ideal. Finally, the book argues that mainstream Terrorism Studies must contend with the growing misogynist and racialised violence against women.
Just War scholarship has adapted to contemporary crises and situations. But its adaptation has spurned debate and conversation—a method and means of pushing its thinking forward. Now the Just War tradition risks becoming marginalized. This concern may seem out of place as Just War literature is proliferating, yet this literature remains welded to traditional conceptualizations of Just War. Caron E. Gentry and Amy E. Eckert argue that the tradition needs to be updated to deal with substate actors within the realm of legitimate authority, private military companies, and the questionable moral difference between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons. Additionally, as recent policy makers and scholars have tried to make the Just War criteria legalistic, they have weakened the tradition's ability to draw from and adjust to its contemporaneous setting. The essays in The Future of Just War seek to reorient the tradition around its core concerns of preventing the unjust use of force by states and limiting the harm inflicted on vulnerable populations such as civilian noncombatants. The pursuit of these challenges involves both a reclaiming of traditional Just War principles from those who would push it toward greater permissiveness with respect to war, as well as the application of Just War principles to emerging issues, such as the growing use of robotics in war or the privatization of force. These essays share a commitment to the idea that the tradition is more about a rigorous application of Just War principles than the satisfaction of a checklist of criteria to be met before waging “just” war in the service of national interest.
Disordered Violence looks at how gender, race and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings of terrorism as irrational, immoral and illegitimate. Caron Gentry examines the profiles of 8 well-known terrorist actors and looks at the gendered, racial, and sexualised assumptions in how their stories are told.
Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores takes the suggestion in Mothers, Monsters, Whores that it is important to see genderings in characterizations of violent women, and to use critique of those genderings to retheorize individual violence in global politics. It begins by demonstrating the interdependence of the personal and international levels of global politics in violent women's lives, but then shows that this interdependence is inaccurately depicted in gender-subordinating narratives of women's violence. Such narratives, the authors argue, are not only normatively problematic on the surface but also intersect with other identifiers, such as race, religion, and geopolitical location.
Introduction : a woman did that? -- Narratives of mothers, monsters and whores -- Triple transgressions at Abu Ghraib -- Black widows in Chechnya -- Dying for sex and love in the Middle East -- Gendered perpetrators of genocide -- Gendering people's violence -- Conclusion : let us now see 'bad' women
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