Tuesday, 03 September 2024
Author: Adriana Ribas
Country: Brazil
Yugoslav fighters (members of patriot forces) during training at Allied camp in Italy on Feb 29, 1944, Source: Keystone/Getty Images
SUMMARY
The objective of this article is to discuss and raise pertinent questions regarding the position of women and their roles – whether imposed or not – both in the process of colonization and the construction of modern nation-states. The discussion will cover issues related to women´s agency/passivity, the multiple narratives that are constantly reproduced, and the hierarchies that permeate the subject of women.
The discussion will be developed from the concept of the male subject constructed by Western Enlightenment, around which political, social, and economic relations were conceived. Furthermore, the idea of the male subject will be transposed to the analysis of the identity of the modern nation-state, legitimized through gendered ideologies of nationalism, which I will demonstrate was constructed in a way that sets up exclusionary boundaries to contain the security threats posed by the “other,” both within and outside the state, who often possesses characteristics typically attributed to women, in opposition to the sovereign man.
The article will also address the idea that the construction of the modern nation-state has a broad relationship with colonial practices, based on the diverse hierarchies that function both within and outside the colonized subjects. This will also bring in the concept of the subaltern, coined by Spivak, and the difficulty they face in making themselves heard.
BACKGROUND
The Western Male Subject
As Pateman points out, contractualism considers the individual as primarily male from the moment that certain characteristics – deemed superior –, are attributed exclusively to men. Furthermore, extreme individualism underpins the rational economic man, a pivotal point to capitalism. He was assigned the public spaces of politics and the market, from which women were excluded. In this sense, women's subjectivity was denied, confining them to the domestic sphere. At first glance, this argument may seem paradoxical. Given the contractualists´ high regard for individualism, how could women be excluded and labeled incomplete, incapable of reasoning? The individual constructed by contractualism is an exclusively male, white, and European subject, contributing to the marginalization of women and all those associated with femininity.
The public sphere relied on the existence of the private sphere of the family and home, whose demands ultimately defined women´s roles and lifestyles, consequently excluding them from participation in economic and political life. Beyond contributing to this exclusion, the division between public and private spheres also resulted in a division between reason and emotion, as the family and home – considered women´s “natural” places – were associated with feelings, in contrast to the self-interest pursued by the rational economic man in the public sphere. Many argue that women's increasing demands for their space in the public sphere may threaten aspects of private life related to care and emotions.
Tickner (1996, p. 150) argues that this is not due to women´s liberation but rather to the rise of male rationality. Because women were excluded from public life, their identity was constructed around a lack of autonomy and independence – in other words, the lack of favorable characteristics that were/are attributed to men. It is crucial to emphasize that binary oppositions are necessarily hierarchical, so public/private and rational/emotional carry the idea of superiority since the second term in these pairs, associated with femininity, was constructed as a devalued characteristic in contrast to the ideal male subject.
Just as the sovereign man depends on the female “other” for the construction of his identity, states ensure their security through their relationship with “others” who are considered inferior and dangerous, both within and outside their borders. Since the founding of nation-states, they have fought for the right to define their identity; nationalism can thus be considered an aspect of identity that must be constantly reproduced. The constant reminder that an individual belongs to a particular nation, characterized by specific customs, rules, cultures, and historical memories, makes nationalism a trait of individual identity as well (Tickner, 1996, p. 153).
The excessive concern with the security of the nation-state is closely linked to the need for the state to wage wars and conflicts, which can also be interpreted as one of the various representations of male power. According to Carol Cohn (1987, p. 695), since the security field is dominated by men, it is common to use macho metaphors and phallic imagery. The emblematic image of “patting the missile” demonstrates that the emotion and pleasure of “caressing the missile” lie in the proximity to all that phallic power, the possibility of indirectly appropriating it.
Therefore, it is no surprise that historical myths related to the construction of national identities are usually memories of national liberation, great victories on the battlefield against external enemies, or the glories of imperialist expansion. The figures represented are often male figures, military leaders who led the nation to great victories, or explorers who ventured in search of “virgin” lands to be discovered.
The Agency and/or Passivity of Women
Peterson (2010, p. 37) argues that feminists have many reasons to focus on identity politics, considering that the constructions of masculinity and femininity that inform our identification as men or women have profound implications for the way we live.
When the homeland is identified with a maternal figure – Motherland – with a female body, it must be protected from violation and invasion by external agents. In this sense, rape as a war weapon would represent a humiliation for the nation-state, which was unable to be protected by male figures. The representation of the nation as a woman also demonstrates the need to protect the continuity of the nation since rape by enemies can lead to the conception of another nationality. Thus, one of the functions of women would be as the reproductive vessel of national identity (Peterson, 2010, p. 48).
It becomes clear, therefore, that while men are attributed agency through the metaphor of penetration into virgin territories, women are assigned passivity in the construction of the nation-state. “Rarely are stories, heroes, or symbols inclusive of women or their lived experiences” (Tickner, 1996, p. 155). Just as in the relationship between public and private spheres, where the latter is hierarchically inferior to the former, women´s roles in war have historically been perpetuated as inferior to those of men, being seen as secondary in the construction of their own identity.
In other words, the construction of the state and nation evokes male agency and reinforces the association of women with the private sphere. Since the myth(s) of the nation-state are built on honor and glory, it would not be interesting to exalt the roles performed by women, who were generally nurses, as it would contradict the idea of patriotism central to the idealization of national identity. Thus, women´s stories about their experiences in wars are erased from popular memory.
In this context, a fundamental difference is observed in the roles of men and women. While the former are seen as the protectors of the nation, women are viewed as what (not even whom) must be protected. This ensures and reproduces the notion of women as second-class citizens and reinforces the importance of war and conflict in maintaining national identity (Peterson, 2010, p. 49).
It is crucial to explain that the idea of women as objects to be protected is not uniform, as they receive different treatment depending on the context in which they are situated. When women are directly associated with the nation-state and their violation would represent a challenge to the honor and glory of the nation, their protection is justified and, above all, necessary. However, the female “other” disconnected from this context, when thinking about the internal borders of the state, is a daily victim of rape perpetrated by the supposed protectors of the “Motherland.” In both contexts, women continue to be treated as objects without agency, but the discursive practice is modified and manipulated according to the interests of the sovereign man.
As previously mentioned, the sovereign man, associated with the figure of the nation-state, is not only male; he is also white and European, which makes the construction of the external “other” conducive to legitimizing colonial endeavors. Moreover, it contributed to the construction of the concept of the White Man´s Burden, whose central idea consists of bringing civilization and salvation to other parts of the world and was also systematized as a parental figure who must care for those who are underdeveloped (and therefore seen as children) and lead them toward a developed society (Loomba, 2005, p. 181). The figure of the white European man is elaborated not only based on his characteristics but also his absent characteristics, in contrast to the threatening and dangerous “other.” In this way, dichotomies are elaborated and normalized, such as modern/traditional, rational/irrational, and civilized/savage, bringing to light the binaries of the sovereign man and the female “other,” reaffirming that Western norms are those that should be followed by other states.
It is noteworthy that underdevelopment is the result of how countries were integrated into the international system, considering that imperialism divided the world into metropoles and colonies, and the relationship between them was marked by unequal development of capitalism and the dependency of the latter on the former. In this sense, if countries are currently divided into developed and underdeveloped, it is due to how each became capitalist (Loomba, 2005, p. 113).
Postcolonial theory questions the inversion of the concepts of order and anarchy, which are generally associated, respectively, with the domestic sphere, considered safe, and the international sphere, considered dangerous and unpredictable (Tickner, 1996, p. 158). From the colonial venture and the construction of the myth around Europe, this thinking is inverted since Western states justify imperialist expansion based on the imminent danger of the “other.”
The domestic space of these places is thus seen as chaotic and dangerous, while the international is seen as safe and civilized. Therefore, natives are seen as people incapable of governing and bringing development to their nation, justifying the necessary tutelage of the white European man, in parallel to the need for the protection of women by the protectors of the “Motherland.” Non-Europeans would thus occupy the same symbolic space as women – both are part of the same nature: incapable of governing, passive, unsophisticated, needing tutelage to develop, characterized by absence, or seen as located outside society and therefore dangerous, unpredictable, and unstable (Loomba, 2005, p. 130). In summary, these nations are also constructed based on their absent characteristics, just as women are defined in contrast to the sovereign man.
Moreover, the mission of the European man also includes saving women from the oppression perpetrated by their men (Peterson, 2010, p. 51, emphasis by the author), corroborating the argument that men from uncivilized nations are savages and reiterating the existing hierarchy between the civilized world, the West, and the uncivilized world, the East.
Recognizing that the need to save women by white European men is a characteristic of the colonial narrative, it is crucial to analyze which of these women are of interest to be saved. Loomba (2005, p. 50) emphasizes the different treatment of women in the colonial world, returning to the idea previously presented of manipulating gender ideology. The discursive divisions between men and women and West and East can also be observed in the categorization of women in the colonial world.
While women´s agency is denied both in the narratives of the construction of the nation-state, in which they are seen as needing protection and playing secondary roles in colonial endeavors, whose narrative revolves around salvation by white European men, resistance against colonialism and/or tyrannies has always been represented by a maternal figure. The female image, mobilized in nationalist and anti-colonial movements, evokes both female power and helplessness. The nation as a mother protecting her child from colonial devastation, but also as needing protection from her child against the colonizers (Loomba, 2005, p. 182), presents both agency and passivity.
Another aspect that highlights women´s agency in colonial societies is related to their labor force, responsible for feeding the colonial machine: “If female slaves were the backbone of plantation economies, today, third-world women and women of color provide the cheapest labor for sweatshops, the sex trade, large multinationals, as well as smaller industries, and are the guinea pigs for exploitative and dangerous experiments in health and fertility. They remain the poorest of the poor in the post-colonial world” (Loomba, 2005, p. 145).
It is important to note that not all margins are equally distant from the normative center since skin color and behavior are responsible for jointly establishing a cultural hierarchy, with the top consisting of the white European woman and the base of the African black woman. According to Loomba (2005, p. 132), Asian women are represented as exotic and elegant, while African and American women are seen as savage and lascivious.
In this sense, colonial endeavors are justified not only as an attempt to break with Western moralism. To this end, stories about the supposed lust of these women circulated in European states, contributing recursively to legitimizing this discourse and the status quo. The sexuality of the black man and especially of the black woman becomes an icon of deviant sexuality in contrast to the narrative of European moralism. These fantasies, in turn, concealed the oppression and perversity perpetrated by the colonizers. It is necessary to remember, as previously mentioned, that women become the battlefield in wars and conflicts, and thus, rapes are frequently carried out by colonizers as an attempt to control/subjugate them and, at the same time, humiliate the colonized men.
It is crucial to note that even within categories considered inferior, black women are/were the most affected by objectification, the labor burden imposed by the colonial system, and the fantasies constructed by the colonizers, that made them a symbol of deviant sexual behavior, as mentioned earlier. It is no coincidence, for example, that this thinking persists to this day, around the myth of the “mulata” and the significant lust and fertility attributed to her. Furthermore, the greater focus on the oppression experienced by white women and black men contributed to the erasure of the oppression suffered by black women, ignoring the fact that they experience a double oppression: of race and gender, which intensify each other.
In patriarchal societies, women are seen as subjects who define themselves – and are defined by – the male gaze. They become objects because femininity itself is construed in contrast to masculinity. According to Loomba (2005, p. 182), colonialism significantly contributed to the intensification of patriarchal society. Since colonized men are excluded from public life by the colonizers and thus confined to private life – equating them with women – they become more tyrannical at home.
“The family can be both used as a metaphor for the nation and cast as the antithesis of the nation or a 'private' realm, as opposed to the public space of the nation. In the colonial situation, this division breaks down as the family becomes both the domain and the symbol of anti-colonial activity precisely because it signals an inner sphere” (Loomba, 2005, p. 182).
As a way to resist the colonial venture and not erase the roots of their culture, the colonized nationalist man demands greater subservience from women, even if this subservience is based on Western values, as a way to enter the colonized spaces. Although the reforms of women´s positions were on the agenda in nationalist movements, women themselves disappeared from these discourses. In both colonial and nationalist records, it is impossible to infer how they felt or how they responded to these new power structures that altered public and private spaces. In this sense, it is clear that colonialism and patriarchy constitute intertwined violence that contributed to the maintenance of women´s positions in society. This connection makes it extremely difficult for the subaltern to speak and be heard (Loomba, 2005, p. 195).
Spivak (as cited in Loomba, 2005, p. 195) emphasizes that postcolonial theorists can make the mistake of trying to homogenize and romanticize the colonial subject, as this romanticization contributes to the narrative of domination – and, therefore, passivity – in contrast to the narrative of constructing the unstable identity of the colonized subject – which attributes agency and resistance. In simpler terms, considering the identity of the colonized subject as something fragmented and whose subjectivities were not fully realized contributes to the narrative of resistance. Despite the distinctions within the colonized – elite and non-elite – the subalterns are simultaneously positioned in different discourses of power and resistance, as the relationship between colonizer and colonized is marked by various other hierarchies.
According to Loomba (2005, p. 200), thinking about the location of the subalterns from this multiplicity of hierarchies is not enough; it is necessary to think, and analyze the crucial relationships between the hierarchies. From this perspective, class, gender, and race should not be thought of as different elements subject to anyone´s choice to analyze them. On the contrary, the full force of these hierarchies is manifested when we analyze them together, in connection with each other and to other social forces. For that reason, it is essential to go beyond the grand narrative – the colonized subject – and locate it from the multiple narratives it conceals – race, gender, and class. Only then can the subaltern´s voice be heard and represented.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the formation of nation-states, as well as the glory and honor of their foundation, were based on the silencing of oppressions, both within and beyond their borders. It is urgent and necessary to construct epistemologies that do not take the white European man as the starting point for the development of theories and analyses. Furthermore, it is crucial to think about the construction of the nation-state and the current international context from an identity that goes beyond the establishment of borders – internal and external – that is necessarily exclusionary.
The analogy between the subordination of women and colonial subjects tends to erase the specificities of colonial projects and, consequently, reproduces the myths surrounding Western states and patriarchal ideologies by attempting to homogenize both the category of women and that of non-Europeans. Therefore, the postcolonial narrative must shift the focus from domination to resistance aiming to attribute agency to colonial subjects.
Moreover, this discourse absolves white European women of their – often contradictory – role in colonial projects. In this sense, feminist and postcolonial perspectives must be combined to develop an epistemology capable of encompassing the specificity of black women´s construction and overcoming their erasure in literature, including their fundamental participation in colonial projects and, consequently, in corroborating the myth surrounding Western states. Thus, the multiple narratives of class, gender, and race must surpass the grand narrative so that the subaltern can truly be represented in nationalist and anti-colonial discourses.
REFERENCES
LOOMBA, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 2005.
TICKNER, J. Ann. Identity in International Relations Theory: Feminist Perspectives.” In: Lapid, Yosef; Kratochwil, F. The Return of Culture and Identity in IR Theory. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers), pp. 147-162, 1996.
PETERSON, V. Spike. Political Identities/Nationalism as Heterosexism”, International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 1, nº1, pp. 34-65, 1999.
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