Studying examples of global, governmental gender dynamics during the mid-00s and the U.S. “War on Terror” period has impressed several basic, universal truths upon me about their intersections. Mainly, I have found that across different global institutions such as the World Bank, the U.S. Military, and security systems at airports (spearheaded mainly by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration), non-normative examples of femininity are routinely singled out as dangerous, disruptive, and used as a scapegoat for systemic flaws. Though the details of these encounters vary by their overhead institution and locations in which they take place, the fundamental principle of portraying femininity that exists against the social and institutional status quo as incendiary rings true throughout.
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Works Cited
Bedford, Kate. “Loving to Straighten Out Development: Sexuality and “Ethnodevelopment” in the World Bank’s Ecuadorian Lending.” Feminist Legal Studies, 2005, pp. 295-322.
Feitz, Lindsey and Nagel, Joanne. “The Militarization of Gender and Sexuality in the Iraq War.” Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict, 2008, pp. 201-225.
Currah, Paisley and Mulqueen, Tara. “Securitizing Gender: Identity, Biometrics, and Trasngender Bodies at the Airport.” Social Research, vol. 78, Summer 2011, pp. 557-582.
