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“Transnational Maternalism and the Vietnam War” The Onyx Review: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal © 2020 Center for Writing and Speaking 2020, Vol.6, No. 1, pp. Agnes Scott College “Transnational Maternalism and the Vietnam War” Amelia Reynolds Agnes Scott College ABSTRACT The Vietnam War (1961-1975) was a period of protest and unrest all over the world, particularly in the U.S. The War was occurring at the same time as second wave feminism, so it was quite common for feminist protests to address the Vietnam War. Maternalism was one type of feminism that was popular during this time. Maternalist feminism emphasizes the importance of the connection between women and children, and relies on traditional gender roles; they argue that because women and children are so interconnected, women should be allowed into the public sphere so that they can make change that is best for children. This stance was very popular among women who protested the war, and there were several organizations based in this belief. This paper will look at three anti-war organizations that rely on maternalist feminism to make their cases: Women’s Strike for Peace (WSP), the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), and Women’s Independent Democratic Federation (WIDF). Through focusing on these three organizations, it will be shown how these three organizations used a maternal feminist approach by emphasizing traditional gender roles to capture the attention of the public about the violence and brutalities of the war against women and children. It will be argued that the Vietnam War changed the meanings of concepts such as motherhood and femininity through anti-war activism, and that these concepts distort American’s perception of war. Protests from the Vietnam War will be compared to modern day anti-war protests that utilized maternalism to demonstrate how maternalism is not an effective protest mechanism today. The Onyx Review A. Reynolds/ Transnational Maternalism and the Vietnam War 1 raditionally, women have Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), and been seen across many Women’s Independent Democratic T cultures as mothers who have Federation (WIDF) were three very nurturing, maternal personalities that gender prominent maternalist anti-war groups. roles insist upon. Women and children are These antiwar organizations attempted to also typically viewed as two interconnected change U.S. foreign policy as well as global beings, and historically have been hard to perceptions of the Vietnam War by bringing separate as individual entities. In other to light the devastation that rained upon words, where women are, children must be, children and the women in Vietnam. Nearly too. In addition, women and children are 20 years long, the War was incredibly often viewed as gentle, and as two helpless brutal; Vietnamese villages were destroyed, sects of people who must be taken care of1. people were tortured, murdered, raped, and Many people claim that when danger arises, terrorized by American soldiers. As a result, women and children must be protected first. it was one of the, if not the, most protested Where women are, the children must be too. war in history. Two helpless sects of people, who are gentle Outside of Vietnam, maternal and must be taken care of and protected. If feminism was also a fairly popular protest there is danger, get the women and children ideology among large groups out of it. While mainstream Western transnationally. While it has lost some of its feminism typically negates these notions, popularity, for multiple reasons, some maternal feminism maintains that gender modern-day protests still employ this roles between men and women are ideology. In this paper, I will illustrate how biologically determined2. This type of the organizations WSP, VWU, and WIDF feminism infers that, because women are employed a maternal feminist approach by supposedly predisposed to be caring, using the concepts of femininity and motherly, pacifist, and nurturing, women motherhood to alert the public about the should be allowed into the public sphere and brutalities of the war against women and create change that is best for themselves and children in an attempt to discourage support their children, because women know for the war. Moreover, I will argue that the children best (Milner 2018). Maternalism Vietnam War changed the meanings of emphasizes the importance of children concepts such as motherhood and femininity broadly, using them to stress the importance through anti-war activism, that these of the causes that these maternalists take up. concepts affect the American public’s Maternalism was a very visible perception of war and its damages, and that stance taken by women activists during the maternalism is not an effective protest Vietnam War. Organizations such as mechanism today. Women’s Strike for Peace (WSP), the 1 This is not the universal view of all women – often, and homophobia. This is a critique of maternalism white women are the ones who are predominantly that I will touch on later in this essay. seen as gentle and nurturing. Racist stereotypes about 2 Biological determinism/essentialism is a theory that hypersexuality and strength are still thrusted upon states that gender roles are biologically women of color, particularly Black women. Women predetermined based on sex. It states that men and and mothers of different races, classes, sexual women are inherently different in psychological and orientations, and religions, are still treated differently behavioral ways. (Chandler 2011) Biological due to the persistence of racism, misogyny, classism, determinism/essentialism is typically used to defend gender roles and the gender binary system. The Onyx Review A. Reynolds/ Transnational Maternalism and the Vietnam War 1 The Role of Maternalism in Anti-Vietnam of the most influential international War Activism women’s organisations [sic] of the post- 1945 era” by WIDF scholar Francisca de It is critical to focus on WSP, VWU, and Haan (Milner 2018). They organized WIDF, because they demonstrate the usage meetings that specifically revolved around of maternal feminism in different countries maternalist ideals, such as the 1955 World to promote similar messages about the Congress of Mothers, the purpose of which Vietnam War. These organizations represent was to connect women of all political and three players in the Vietnam War: Vietnam, religious backgrounds through maternal the United States, and Australia. These narratives (Milner 2018). Using these groups worked together to show the world methods, these organizations protested the what the War was doing to the women and Vietnam War. children of Vietnam. The Women’s Strike for Peace was an American organization that While these organizations used the same leaned heavily into maternalist rhetoric. maternalist framework to push anti-war WSP represented Vietnamese women as agendas, WSP, VWU, and WIDF were also mothers who wanted to protect their different in several ways. The main children, as victims of American violence, difference between these organizations were and they “promoted non-violence and an end the ways they depicted Vietnamese women. to war, primarily to save Vietnamese WSP was fond of portraying them as children and women (in that order)” (Milner mourning victims of the U.S.’s terror. 2018). Prominent members of WSP were Furthermore, as individual members of WSP Diane Nash, Barbara Deming, and Dagmar came to realize that women fighting back Wilson (Frazier 2017). The Vietnam against the U.S. soldiers was reasonable and Women’s Union was focused on showing perhaps admirable, they continued to the world how Vietnamese mothers had to publicly express nonviolence4. The VWU continue with their lives amongst the portrayed Vietnamese women as mothers devastation (42). In addition, they spread mourning the loss of their children, but also messages of women’s rights under as mothers who fought back against the socialism, and propaganda about the War brutality they and their families experienced. (143). The VWU, unlike WSP, shared It was in this way that these women sought Vietnamese mothers’ stories of their roles in equality with men. And in WIDF’s public the war, and the lengths that they would go expressions of support, they were very to for their children3. Prominent members adamant about children and women as included Le Thi Xuyen, Phan Thi An, and victims. Despite these differences, these Nguyen Ngoc Dung (42). The third group I organizations had many similarities within will discuss is the Women’s Independent their activism. They worked together and Democratic Federation. This group attended each other’s conferences. Members originated in Australia, and has been of WIDF and WSP travelled to Vietnam to described as “the largest and definitely one aid women and children and hear their 3 In a poem entitled “My Son’s Childhood”, a mother 4 Barbara Deming of WSP realized that “for the in Vietnam mourns for her living child having to Vietnamese, femininity did not exclude militancy”, grow up during the Vietnam War, playing “with a and this “troubled her because she recognized bomb shelter”, and she says that “The gun is close women’s potential to act violently”, but she by, bullets ready/If I must shoot” (Quynh 1969). continued to advocate for nonviolence, and nonviolent resistance (Frazier 2017, 22). The Onyx Review A. Reynolds/ Transnational Maternalism and the Vietnam War 2 stories, and to see the violence firsthand. In Public Perceptions of Maternalist Groups reality, they did much more than attend and Consequences for Women Activists conferences, and they achieved quite a lot during their time in Vietnam. For example, The public perception of these groups Mary Clarke, a member of WSP, established varied. Some of the American public viewed a fund that went towards a children’s WIDF as a potential communist actor. A hospital in Northern Vietnam. New York Times article from 1949 associates WIDF with the Soviet Union and But, questions still arise when examining Joseph Stalin, and while it does not mention these tactics and this type of feminism as any WIDF members directly, it connects it activism: Why use maternalism at all? What with members of the Congress of American did this so-called feminism do for the causes Women (NYT 1949).
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