War And Patriarchy In Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas

“For,’ the outsider will say, ‘in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world’” (Woolf,129). War, masculinity, and patriarchy have been connected by many authors in an explanation in gender studies. Virginia Woolf being this another step and explicitly states there is a connection between war and patriarchy. There is a relationship between war and patriarchy, and there is a relationship between femininity and peace. Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas was written to answer three questions. These questions were “How in your opinion are we to prevent war?”, “Why does the government not support education for women?”, “Why are women not allowed to engage in professional work?”. Woolf introduces

The Vietnam war propaganda displayed many of the classic warrior ideals which emphasized this point. Men like John Wayne were shown to be heterosexual, patriotic, and a protector. The military and government feminized Vietnam as a means to go to war and to show dominance over its enemies. They feminized that people as being a damsel in destress needed to be saved but outside power. As well mixed in was racism with the image of the “Dragon Lady”. The Dragon Lady was the exotic sly women of Vietnam and also portrayed as sex objects. All of these ideas emphasized the link between male ideals and war. These ideas take a more sinister mood when looking at War in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and there leader Slobodan Milosevic used violence and genocide to further his country’s agenda. He encouraged the use of rape and violence to gain control and spread fear between ethnic groups. This immaculate these effected people further proving to point that there is a link between war and masculinity. A similar point can be seen in the Civil War in Rwanda. Rape was encouraged as part of the war effort, ”Tutsi women were portrayed as flaunting their physical attributes, tempting Hutu men to lust and Hutu women to resentment. In this politically ethicized construction, Tutsi women were imagined by those Hutus in power to be women deserving of rape and

One motive was to liberal the people from the Taliban rule. The Taliban had a very oppressive rule, especially toward women. Many of their rights were taken away in the ultra-conservative ideals. Women could not hold jobs, could not attend school, forced to wear burqas, and be accompanied when going out in public by a men of the house. “We paid a man from within the extended family or neighborhood to pretend that he is our mahram and to accompany us in public so that we could go to work. This was also one way for these men to have a job and earn money. In these cases, women’s secret work allowed men to earn money. But it was risky for both men and women because if the Taliban would have found out we would have been dead” (Rostami-Povey, 232). While these conditions were known to humanitarian organizations it did not reach mainstream media. The invasion of Afghanistan to help the women was seen to have Orientalist and Protectionist reasons for the US. They focused on the women of Afghanistan and that the country needed the saving grace of the Western culture. After 9/11 there was a large media focus on Afghanistan and the women there. Film also portrayed the interesting connections between the West and Middle East along with gender relations. The Jessica Lynch story played perfect with what the US was trying to convey about the war. Lynch was a female, white, and single war hero.” And I also shouldn