Mohanty- Kim The

In Feminism and War: Confronting US Imperialism, feminist scholars and activists critique how the US is complicit in perpetuating imperialism, militarization, and war through racist, heterosexist, and masculinized practices. They explain how this is done. We do this when we justify war by saying that we need to “save brown women in Afghanistan” in the name of civilization and democracy while at the same time targeting people of color in the US. This has been done most recently with through Trump’s immigration ban, but goes back to events such as 9/11 along with the US’s long history of colonialism and imperialism. Painting women of color as in need of saving is vital to the US’s political economy because it creates industries for the US to make money off of war, which is tied in with neoliberalism and globalization.

This applies to disability studies because disability studies has traditionally been very white and focused on US and European-centric disability issues. Increasing attention is being turned to disability in the Global South. However, while drawing attention to these issues we need to be careful not to perpetuate narratives of imperialism and militarization. For example, we need to avoid painting the picture that other countries treat their people with disabilities worse compared to in the US, so they are uncivilized and we should intervene through colonization and/or war. In the book’s introduction, Mohanty discusses the concept of victimhood and how it affects women of color in countries that the US has gone to war with and how this was used to justify war. An analysis of victimhood narratives and disabled women of color may also result in finding how disability intersects with race and gender to also used to justify imperialism and militarization. An analysis of how all of these factors play out in terms of neoliberalism and political economy would also be an interesting line of study. How are industries of war created out of sexism, racism, and disability? How does this further oppress women, people of color, and people with disabilities on a global scale? What is the role of globalization in this?

I also think that it is important to reflect on this reading as is relevant to today’s International Women’s Day strike. The purpose of the strike is to demonstrate women’s economic power in global economies. It is my hope that this strike helps move activism efforts forward and bring us together to work in solidarity with one another. However, not all campaigns are built with the same considerations of political context, imperialism, and militarization. For example, I look at certain campaigns related to International Women’s Day such as the #HerVoiceIsMyVoice campaign aimed at celebrating inspirational women leaders and commend its efforts and wonder whether its erasure of discussions of colonialism,  imperialism, and militarization will lead to the same problems that the Feminism and War reading critiqued and an overall lack of understanding of how war fuels US political economy. I think that considering these things would add a needed level of depth to this campaign and other similar events happening in conjunction with the International Women’s day strike.

Discussion questions:

1)   How does imperialism affect people with disabilities? How does it connect to the overall critique related to feminism, militarization, and war?

2)   Today is the International Women’s Day strike. It seems like a good opportunity to discuss how critiques of imperialism and militarization can be translated into activism. What kinds of actions can we take in support of feminist critiques regarding imperialism, militarization, and war? How do we explain why we are tying our actions to these critiques?