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Penny Stanley, Department of Intemational Politics, University of Wales, Aberystnvyth, Wales

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Penny Stanley, Department of Intemational Politics, University of Wales, Aberystnvyth, Wales MASS RAPE IN WAR: FEMINIST THOUGHT AND BRITISH PRESS OF THE -REPRESENTATIONS BALKAN CONFLICT 1991-1995 Penny Stanley, Department of Intemational Politics, University of Wales, AberystNvyth, Wales. PART THREE THREE 265 LNTRODUCTION TO PART ............................................................................................ FEN-ILNISTTHOUGHT 266 ......................................................................................................................... THEMES 270 CHAPTER SEVEN: PRESS AND FEMINIST ............................................................. RAPE WEAPON. 271 AS A ........................................................................................................................ THE REPRESENTATION WOMEN ........................ 283 OF I ......................................................................... BIOLOGICAL DETERMLNISNI 299 ............................................................................................................. CONCLUSION 312 .................................................................................................................................... THOUGHT AND PRESS REPRESENTATIONS 314 CHAPTER EIGHT: FEMINIST .................. MASSRAPE BALKANCONFLICT 316 IN THE ............................................................................................ WAR GAMES 318 .................................................................................................................................... NATIONALISM 325 .................................................................................................................................. IDENTITY 332 .......................................................................................................................................... MISOGYNY 338 ....................................................................................................................................... CONCLUSION 351 ....; .............................................................................................................................. THE PRESS 352 CHAPTER NINE: FEMINIST'SOLUTIONS'AND ............................................... INFILTRATION RESISTANCE 353 AND ...................................................................................................... RADICALPENALTIES 356 ........................................................................................................................ INTERNATIONALLEGISLATION 360 ........................................................................................................ REDEFINITION 364 ................................................................................................................................. ENDING SILENCE 373 THE ....................................................................................................................... CONCLUSION 379 .................................................................................................................................... CONCLUSION: MASS RAPE IN WAR, PRESS REPRESENTATIONS, AND POLITICAL CHANGE 382 ............................................................................................................................................ BIBLIOGRAPHY 387 .............................................................................................................................. I PART THREE IMPLICATIONS 264 INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE Part Two described and analysed.the reports of rape during the Balkan conflict as representedin key sections of the British press. Throughout the analysis of these representationssome powerful and recurring themes began to emerge,many of which were based around ideas originally emanating from feminist theory. The primary aim of Part Three is to demonstratethe complex relationships between feminist theorising and the social world and to identify some of the social and political implications of those interrelationships. In order to illustrate this, the chapters in Part Three highlight the ways in which the press has adopted ideas that originated from feminist theorising (Chapter Seven), and also the ways in which feminist theorists have utilised some press analysesto develop further their own theories and explanations for mass rape in war (Chapter Eight). In Chapter Nine, various 'solutions'to the problem of mass rape in war are proposedby four feminists: each of these individuals, specifically makes the point that they have used press reports of mass rape in the Balkans both as a motivating factor in their desire to develop solutions and as a source of information. ' Prior to examining these 'solutions'and other issuesin Part Three, it would be useful to first make some points about how 'feminist thought' is used in the thesis. This is important because of the clear argument in the thesis that feminist ideas have been utilised by the media, and vice versa, and also in order to explain why it is important for the issue of mass rape in war that this relationship is acknowledgedand understood. 'Beverley Allen, Rape Warfare: ne Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-HerzeLyovinaand Croatia (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), pp. xii & xiv; Claudia Card, "Rape as a Weapon of War, " Hypati Vol. 11, no. 4 (Fall 1996): p. 11; Natalie Nenadic, "Fen-dcide:A Framework for Understanding Genocide," in Diane Bell and Renate Klein, eds., Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed (London: Zed Books, 1996), p. 459, n. 10; Jocelynne Scutt, "The Personal is Political, " in Diane Bell and Renate Klein (1996), pp. 103 n. l& 105. 265 Feminist Thought What does it mean to say that a piece of research,or a theory, is 'feminist? ' For the purposesof the thesis, I argue that there are two sensesin which researchand theories might be considered feminist. First are those approachesthat examine the experiences of wornen.' Here the aim is to highlight marginalised, forgotten or ignored aspectsof social phenomena.This type of researchmay not be explicitly feminist, but insofar as it illuminates previously ignored aspects of women's lives, then it can rightly be consideredas having a feminist inspiration. Second are those approachesthat attempt to bring a woman's perspectiveto the study of particular phenomena.' Of course, what constitutes 'a woman's perspective' (and whether such a perspective is attainable, or even desirable) has been hotly debated,most notably by 'postmodem feminists. ' Yet even in those 'postmodern feminist' approacheswhich begin by problematising the idea Woman' it 'feminism'and Voman'must very of , seemsclear that some notion of be in play. Despite all their disclaimers, it is interesting to note that postmodem feminists still cannot escapethe use of the word Woman', and so it must remain for them a set of ideas. That is to say, it makes no sense for an approach that places difference at the centre of its analysis to obliterate the difference between 'postmodemism'and 'postmodemfeminism'. ' I argue that this difference is a concern 2Sandra Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking From Women's Lives (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 6; also, Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); and Linda J. Nicholson, Feminism/Postmodemism(London: Routledge, 1990). 3For example: Dorothy K. Stein, "Women to Burn: Suttee as a Normative Institution, " in Jill Radford and Diana Russell, eds., Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992); pR. 62-66; S. H. Venkatramani, "Female Infanticide: Born to Die," in Radford and Russell (1992), pp. 125-132;'Efua Dorkenoo and Scilla Elworthy, "Female Genital Mutilation, " in Miranda Davies, ed., Women and Violence: Realities and ResponsesWorldwide (London: Zed Books, 1994), ýp. 137-148. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), ch. 11; Jean Grimshaw, Feminist Philosophers: Women's Perspectives on Philosophical Traditions (Brighton: WheatsheafPress, 1986); Alison Jaggar,Feminist Politics and Human Nature (Totowa, N. J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1988); Sneja Gunew, A Readerin Feminist Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1991). 5Sandra Harding, "Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is ýStrongObjectivity? " in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter, eds., Feminist Epistemologies (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 49-83; Linda Nicholson, ed., Feminism/Postmodernism (London: Routledge, 1990); Michelle Barratt and Anne Phillips, eds., Destabilising Theo!y: Contemporary Feminist Debates (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992). 6 Indeed, a consistent postmodernism would have to reject feminism. As Tor-it Moi has put it, postmodernism 'seesall metanarratives,including feminism, as repressive enactmentsof metaphysical authority'. Quoted in Andrew Vincent, Modern Political Ideologies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), p. 175. For an insightful analysis of the danger inherent in this obliteration, see, Somer Brodribb, Nothing Matffiers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism(Melbourne: Spinifex, 1992). 266 with women, their experiences,and (possible) ways of knowing, however defined! It is this unity-within-diversity that explains the continuing validity of the label feminism to what appearsto be a disparategroup of approaches. The two forms of feminist researchjust mentioned are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, most feminist researchtends to focus on the experiencesof women and is conducted from a perspective that makes clear its commitment to some form of feminist
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