CANS 406 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: European Colonialism, Masculinity, Hypermasculinity
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Masculinity, Identity, Nations and States
-Identity has been a point of interest in international relations since 1990s
-They shape how threats and vulnerabilities are perceived – a woman and a man
experience the world differently, thus perceive the world around them differently
-Feminist concern with identity: “who are the collective ‘we’ about whom the historical
understanding of our world has been constructed?” (Tickner)
-Individuals, nations, and states have gendered identities which are shaped by “ambiguously
gendered ideologies of nationalism” (Tickner)
-Think “I am Canadian” Molson ad – beer-drinking man talking about hockey as
Canadian nationalism/patriotism
-Association of the western state with the idea of the sovereign man
-State sovereignty is a “crucial reification of human identity as a particular rendition of rational
man” (Walker)
-Individuals – esp men – are theorized as autonomous, rational actors who can enter into
a social contract
-Tickner: “favourable attributes of states, such as independence, strength, autonomy, and self-
help, resemble the characteristics of sovereign man”
-States’ identities are therefore shaped by the historic denial of women’s subjectivity and their
confinement to the domestic/private sphere
-The collective we that constitutes the state/nation therefore prioritizes/primarily reflects
men’s voices and interests, because desirable characteristics of a state are seen as
typically male characteristics
-Tickner: “Just as sovereign man depended on the female other for his identity, so the state
secures its identity through its relationship to identities of devalued and dangerous others, both
inside and outside its boundaries”
-We define ourselves according to what we are not, create a collective through “us vs.
them” mentality
-Gendered constructions of the “oriental woman” have shaped hierarchical relations between
nations/states and facilitated European colonialism (Enloe)
-The oppression of “native women” was used to justify the “project of undermining or
eradicating cultures of colonized people” (Enloe)
-The “colonized nation is gendered as female and entails a feminized subordination of the whole
nation, as femininity is associated with retrogressive rather than progressive qualities” (Enloe)
-The colonized male is gendered in ways intended to show inferiority vis-à-vis the colonial male
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Document Summary
Identity has been a point of interest in international relations since 1990s. They shape how threats and vulnerabilities are perceived a woman and a man experience the world differently, thus perceive the world around them differently. Feminist concern with identity: who are the collective we" about whom the historical understanding of our world has been constructed? (tickner) Individuals, nations, and states have gendered identities which are shaped by ambiguously gendered ideologies of nationalism (tickner) Think i am canadian molson ad beer-drinking man talking about hockey as. Association of the western state with the idea of the sovereign man. State sovereignty is a crucial reification of human identity as a particular rendition of rational man (walker) Individuals esp men are theorized as autonomous, rational actors who can enter into a social contract. Tickner: favourable attributes of states, such as independence, strength, autonomy, and self- help, resemble the characteristics of sovereign man .
