Feminist Analysis Of Militarism

Ecofeminist Analysis of Militarism and the War on Terrorism

Since the start of our retaliation against terrorism, war, and the military-industrial complex used to support war, have become extremely important topics. While accomplishing its primary objective, war also destroys the innocent. War hits the young, old, women and children. The environment is partially destroyed in the country in which the war is fought. Both a feminist and environmentalist perspective are useful when analyzing militarism and its policies of domination and oppression.

Feminists see the military system as another patriarchal institution of domination that values the masculine over the feminine. War usually exploits women and other marginalized

Ecofeminists look at the ideological and psychological pressures on the masculine ego that fuels the abuse of power. The traditional femininity or environmental approach is to suggest that the military institution can be changed through reason, education, and /or religion. This approach denies the importance of the individual's actions in daily life about socially constructed sex and gender roles. The system is not the target of analysis, rather the individual is seen as the burden of solution. Ecofeminism seeks to change and create a new system, a system which does not put the blame and pressure on the

In both critiques, feminist and ecological, the goal is to point out the sexism of the appeal to a generic mankind and humanity and to uncover, instead of a comprehensive appeal, the connections between sexism, racism, imperialism, classism, and environmental exploitation. An example of an ecofeminist deconstruction is feminist analyst Joni Seager. Seager, as discussed in Noel Sturgeon's book entitled Ecofeminist Natures, identifies the patriarchal characteristics of governments, militaries, and corporations as one of the main factors in their continuing responsibility for environmental degradation