Feminism & War (Mohanty)

This reading was complicated for me as a passionately anti-war feminist (working in healthcare with people forced by US wars to flee their countries as refugees), who is also the child of two military parents. I felt this reading did a good job of highlighting the challenging complexities of US militarism and how US militarism affects women both abroad and within US borders. From a methodological standpoint, this reading's methodology reminded me of 'Imperial Blues' - a project that takes the lens of transnational feminism and applies it within the US as well.

My mother and father were both in the military (and my mother is still in the military), so my personal relationship to this topic is deeply conflicted. My mother is a passionate feminist who introduced me to feminism early in my childhood. I think her military service (she was among the first women allowed in her branch of military) is what radicalized her as a feminist - the experiences of surviving in a male-dominated environment her whole adult life made women's oppression very salient to her. I grew up with stories about colleagues' negative assumptions about her, outright discrimination, disrespect, sexual harassment and witnessing subjugation of other women up close and personal (especially during her service in Korea where the men in her unit treated local women, especially sex workers, in alarming ways). She told me about sexual-assault 'scandals' throughout her career - which I now see as deeply connected to queer-phobia. Just as bi and lesbian women face higher rates of sexual violence than hetero women, military women face alarming sexual violence as 'repurcussions suffered for acting outside the accepted boundaries of femininity operating within particular spaces'(Mohanty). They are forced to 'act masculine' to survive the military culture, and then are often punished for doing so.

My mother now works in admissions for a military academy, specifically in the diversity department. She originally joined the military because it was her only option for a college education (as a poor teenager from a working-class enlisted family), and now she reaches out to other minority students who might see the military as their only option for educational advancement. The ethical concerns about this kind of recruitment are not lost on me. But US over-spending on military and under-spending on public higher education has (probably not by accident) left many poor teenagers in a bind where military academies are all too appealing.

My questions are: Are there ways that we can engage feminists within the US military in order to reform the institution from the inside-out? I agree with the need for revolution against US imperialism and capitalism, but I also believe there are many powerful women in the military and wonder what their role could be in revolution or reform. What is an anti-war feminist to make of women in the military? Is there a place for military women in anti-war feminist coalitions?