I found myself re-reading line after line making attempts to comprehend. There was a lot of interesting, eye-opening and clarifying information in all of the articles once you began to understand them, but the one that particularly stood out to me was "Decisions Decisions Decisions".
In this article Cynthia Enloe, introduced me to a new concept "militarization". This concept she describes as "the step-by-step process by which something becomes controlled by, dependent on, or derives its value from the military as an institution of militaristic criteria"(562). The whole idea of militarization is quite disturbing...it’s reassuring to know that "what has been militarized can be demilitarized" but the truth of the matter is it can also be "remilitarized". What I found more disturbing than that was Woolf's extensive list of everyday items and concepts that are and have potential to be militarized. I was able to see how the examples provided in the text regarding the production of sneakers and the institution of marriage could be militarized...but mascara, umbrellas and laundry??
She made an argument that there are movements that are opposed to "militaristic regimes" however they can encompass militaristic values. When I read that paragraph on page 563, the chapter in Gender Talk that discusses the Civil Rights movement came to mind. The Civil Rights movement was supposed to be about the liberation of all minority people however, the minority women were never seen, heard or even discussed. Their "decisions [militarized] their movements in ways that privilege[d] masculinity and thereby marginalize[d] some men and most women"(563).
I supposed in the society we live in, the militarization of mascara, umbrellas and laundry should not seem too farfetched.
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I had the same reflection about the Civil Rights Movement. I often wonder how many instructors of African American History are teaching about the masterful acheivements the women who started many of the movement. Are they revealing how these women were navigated out of the leadership roles, which they had established, and assigned more subserviant roles. Is this a type of "militarization?"
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