Women as peaceful and
kind, compassionate, caring, motherly, navigates its way into all discourse in
society. Movie scenes and characters such as Lucy in Across the Universe works tirelessly to protest the war in Vietnam
and only questions her anti-war movement when the men of the group decide to
create a bomb. She says “I thought it was the other side that drops bomb”. She
is the peaceful, feminine constant throughout the musical story of an anti-war
caveat of American society during the Vietnam War. Or there is Princess Leia in
Star Wars, although has a governing role, is portrayed as more peaceful,
compassionate, and doesn’t engage in fighting like her brother Luke. Furthermore,
women as the leveled headed voice of reason when sports fights or bar fights
break out, are continually portrayed in TV or movies. The narrative of this is
seriously disrupted when Charlize Theron defied traditionally peaceful feminine
roles in Mad Max: Fury Road or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, or the majority of the
characters from Orange is the New Black. Understanding the value in disrupting
the persisting narrative of women as peaceful and kind will be beneficial for
you, personally, to see that you do not have to constantly be the mediator in
situations nor try to always appease everyone.
Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
The readings highlight
women are dichotomized into peaceful, in comparison to men’s violence. However,
this is not a biological predisposession. Women are not inherently more
peaceful, nor are men born more violent. It is the socialization children, then
men and women, received to gain value and a place in society. However, why is
it more common to have women active in peace movements as discussed in Halek Afshar and Azza Karam’s articles (2003; 2001)? You
will learn it is in part due to the socialization that persists throughout
society, but I also think peace movements provide a legitimate political
platform and way for women to be politically engaged and enter the masculine
discourse of war. Active participation in war efforts for women have been
restricted either strictly relational to their male relations, or through
removed labour efforts. Women have been instrumental in medical caregiving roles
during war times, though arguably this does little to challenge the masculine
war versus the feminine peaceful care. But being active in peaceful activism
allows a platform for women to be heard. Even with women engaged in war
measures, they are excluded from high-level decision making, where as peace activism
can permit women to influence the direction of war efforts.
Uma Thurman, Kill Bill
Ultimately women can only be presumed to be more peaceful in nature due
to their socialization, and the prescribed gender roles. This has allowed women
to reclaim this notion and turn it into something that can allow women to have
a greater influence on military operations, if only to raise awareness.
Discussing the inherent masculinity of war and conflict cannot be completed
without challenging our notions of peace and who controls peaceful
rehabilitation. UN Article 1325, which was brought up in some of the month’s
readings and the second documentary, explicitly links women to the
post-conflict peace negotiation process as a valuable and productive way to
restructure society. Women need to be apart of the peace process not because of
some inherent essential characteristic but because all perspectives,
experiences, and opinions need to be valued in creating a stable government
post conflict.
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