(FEM4) Feminist Challenges to War, Violence, and Hate: Towards a Sustainable Future for All Life

This session invited papers which discuss and analyze feminist approaches to challenging war and violence, as well as all forms of hatred including misogyny, racism, and speciesism. The escalation of war and violence across the globe, combined with the urgency of the climate crisis, call for alternative paradigms which highlight the interconnectedness of all life on the planet, including human life and the more than human world. Building on the conference theme, Challenging Hate: Sustaining shared futures, we invite anticolonial, decolonizing, and intersectional feminist and ecofeminist perspectives which challenge all forms of oppression, inequality and hatred among peoples, as well as destructive human relations with the environment and other species in our interdependent world. Tags: Feminism, Social Movements

Organizers: Ronnie Joy Leah, Athabasca University, Linda Christiansen-Ruffman, Saint Mary’s University, Sonia D'Angelo, York University; Chairs: Linda Christiansen-Ruffman, Saint Mary’s University, Ronnie Joy Leah, Athabasca University

Presentations

Jane Ku, University of Windsor

Exploring Intersectionalities and Connections as Assignations for Developing a Transnational Feminist Relationality against Violence

This paper develops a decolonial anti-imperialist, anti-heteropatriarchal and antiracist feminist position against militarism and violence that have unequally parcelled out misery and suffering to people across the world. The paper explores how our local everyday experience is an entry point for a more sustainable way forward to intersectional histories, encounters and a creative imagination that makes it possible for us to confront each other’s experiences and differences not comparatively but relationally. While working autoethnographically, I want to go beyond de-authorizing our biographical accounts to explore moments and confrontations with various provocations and incidents that demand that we step out of ourselves to engage with the social, the geopolitical, the local and global processes that have framed modern conflicts and relations and cultures.  Beginning from our locations, how do we re-interpret our histories and unsettle our community boundaries and futures to interrogate our relationalities with peoples and events that seem to have no connections with us? I explore an ethical relationality that includes both attachment and detachment not only to rethink our encounters with different peoples and events but to see how we might use our everyday sites as places to intervene and interrogate violence and ideologies that promote hate and exclusion. Attending to my own reactions to and reflections on pre and post pandemic anti-Asian hate and violence, alongside of the depraved disregard of Muslim and Palestinian lives, and burgeoning attempts to draw parallels and comparisons that led me to take on the transnational feminist challenge of creating a more viable local and global relationality, the paper focuses on how we might act and think in our everyday spaces the fluctuating but deep interconnections among multiple histories and communities and to engage each other to develop a future built on solidarity, relationality and translational practices of difference that can counter the violence that we take for granted. The paper will draw from transnational feminist literature (e.g. Mohanty), Asian (North) American studies (Lowe), and Black feminist abolitionist scholars (Davis) to develop an explicitly decolonial anti-imperial and anti-violence framework.

Rebecca Haines, McGill University

Feminist Resistance in Myanmar's Anti-military Movement: The Cases of Sister2Sister and the Spouses of People's Soldiers

In this paper, I will conduct a comparative case study of two of the most unique new feminist initiatives that have emerged since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar: Sister2Sister and Spouses of People’s Soldiers. Sister2Sister is a group that seeks to hold Myanmar’s anti-regime resistance movement accountable to principled action toward gender equality and human rights. It is a horizontal feminist activist collective aiming to influence the ideological framing of the anti-military resistance and the attitudes of the Myanmar public more broadly. In a series of social media campaigns and media productions, Sister2Sister has drawn attention to ongoing sexism, racism, violence against civilians, and abuse of power, in wider society, as perpetrated by the Myanmar military, and within the resistance movement itself. Spouses of People’s Soldiers is a feminist collective that supports the families of soldiers who have defected from the Myanmar military. It also aims to enable more defections through facilitating linkages between the spouses of already defected soldiers and wives of soldiers still in the military. Beginning from the social networks of core group members, the group reaches out to the wives of soldiers still in the military, providing information about how to defect safely and what life will be like after defection. Spouses of People’s Soldiers also raises money and provides small grants and loans to defecting families to help them re-establish their lives in non-military occupied Myanmar or across international borders. Through the comparison of these two cases, I examine different feminist tactics developed as part of Myanmar’s wider anti-regime resistance movement, tracing their sources of inspiration and key influences. In addition to comparing the tactics of these two feminist collectives, I analyze their respective positioning among the heterogeneous constellation of resistance actors, and their orientations toward the tactics of the wider resistance (including its armed actors). Specifically, this paper asks: What are the theories of change, strategies, and tactics of new feminist collectives affiliated with Myanmar’s anti-regime resistance movement? To what extent have these strategies and tactics evolved from past struggles, or been inspired by other feminist movements? How do these approaches relate to and interact with the wider tactical repertoire of the resistance movement they are part of? This paper grounds its case studies in three areas of social movement and conflict literature. The first is an area of social movement literature that studies the gendered nature of the tactical repertoires of social movement actors. The second focuses on the impact of women and women’s rights organizations as part of wider state-opposed resistance movements. This research examines the correlations and mechanisms associated with how women’s participation and leadership relate to movement outcomes in ‘maximalist’ or anti-regime movements. Finally, the paper will engage with the literature that examines feminist orientations toward the use of force. The cases studies will be elaborated based on three sources of data: interviews with key organizers and participants, participant observation in live online sessions and/or planning meetings, and review of social media campaign data (mostly on Twitter/X and Facebook). The combination of these data will enable some triangulation and potential friction to emerge between sources and types of information. Interviews will be particularly helpful in documenting and understanding the origin story of these initiatives, the problems they seek to address, the theories of change implicit or explicit in their approaches, and both the successes they have achieved and the challenges they have faced so far. Participant observation opportunities will help to better understand the specific content these initiatives develop, and how their audiences respond to this content. A review of social media messaging and content will provide much the same types of insight as the participant observation data, enabling both more detailed descriptive documentation of these initiatives and a more concrete understanding of how strategies and tactics play out in practice. While the paper does aim to engage with theoretical concepts and situate these cases within social movement literature, it also has a core aim of documenting emerging feminist strategies within Myanmar’s anti-regime resistance movement since 2021. These initiatives are little known and largely undocumented at present but represent critical examples of feminist innovation in social movement tactical repertoires.

Mary-Catherine Croshaw, York University

"Add Women and Stir?" The Successes and Failures of Feminist Peacemaking: A Case Study of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition

In recent decades there has been a significant focus, in both academia and the international community, on the necessity of involving women in peace processes. There is an emerging consensus that when women are involved in peacemaking, the resulting agreements are more likely to address the relationship between the conflict and social issues such as education, health, and housing (Cowell Meyers, 2014). Evidence also suggests that when women are involved in negotiations, conflict-related sexual violence is more like to be addressed (Roberts et al., 2010). However, the inclusion of women in peacemaking is no guarantee that issues which do not directly pertain to cessation of armed conflict will be addressed; conflict-related sexual violence in particular is still left off the table more often than not (Ashe, 2020). According to Roberts et. Al. (2010), only 18 of 300 peace agreements pertaining to 45 conflicts since World War II address sexual and gender-based violence. It is therefore necessary to investigate the conditions under which feminist peacemaking experiences the greatest success, and the mechanisms through which the unique forms of violence faced by women during war remain marginalized despite the inclusion of women in peacemaking processes. Through a framework of critical gender analysis, this paper will analyse the successes and failures of the Northern Ireland women’s coalition (NIWC) in the northern Irish peace process of the 1990s, and discuss what this case can reveal about the strengths and limitations of feminist peacemaking. Through the case study, this paper will problematize the “add women and stir” approach to peacemaking, a framework which assumes that simply including women in the peacemaking process will result in outcomes which effectively address the unique security needs of women in conflict resolution (Dharmapuri, 2011). The “add women and stir” approach is a foundational principle of un resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, and forms the basis of approaches to inclusive peacekeeping in the international community; this paper will demonstrate that the mere presence of women in negotiations is not nearly enough to secure agreements that effectively address the security needs of women. The NIWC is celebrated in Ireland and in the international community for securing significant reforms in areas such as housing and education as part of the good Friday Agreement but failed to get provisions addressing sexual violence included in the agreement despite significant effort on their part (Cowell Meyers, 2014). The group was also unsuccessful in their attempts to secure criminal justice reforms that would strengthen repercussions for gender-based violence. This paper will discuss how the NIWC was able to achieve success on issues that impacted all of their society, and will examine the conditions of the northern Irish peace process which hindered the group’s ability to address any form of gendered violence. In this regard, the paper will explore in detail the impact of backchannel negotiations by heavily masculinized paramilitary groups; the systemic misogyny faced by the founding members of the NIWC as they mobilized to bring women’s issues to the negotiation table; the intimidation and violence NIWC members faced from the majority male delegation during peace talks; and the impact of a culture of militarized masculinity, which asserts that “traits stereotypically associated with masculinity can be acquired and proven through military action” (Eichler, 2014), on the framing of the conflict and its resolution. Further, the paper will demonstrate how and why these conditions resulted in a peace agreement that is completely silent on the forms of violence faced by northern Irish women during the conflict despite great effort on the part of the NIWC. Ultimately, this paper will demonstrate how and why the “add women and stir” approach largely failed in Northern Ireland, and will discuss what can be done differently to ensure that feminist challenges to war and violence are not steamrolled by the same systems of violence and hate which fuel conflict around the globe.

Nevandria Page, University of Ottawa

Towards a Black Feminist Life on Mars: An Afrofuturist Analysis of Space Exploration

Over the last decade, both competing states and ambitious tycoons have made significant investments in space exploration, racing to embrace the domain’s opportunities, accessible thanks to emerging technologies. Contemporary discourse surrounding space-based commercial, scientific, and military endeavours centres on a virtually omnipresent narrative of a “Third Great Age of Discovery” (Pyne 2016, p. 113). Popular constructions of the undiscovered cosmos and its untapped resources emphasize the prosperity of a new colonial era while misdirecting from its exploitations. Redfield synthesized this narrative as “History is cleansed above the planet,” wherein advocates of space exploration ignore or, worse, erase the indispensable role which the enslavement and exploitation of Black people played in the creation and sustenance of settler states and which now risks repetition in humankind’s colonization of outer space (Redfield 2011, p. 797). In a future of large-scale space exploration and development, such constructions of outer space may indeed precipitate the continued exploitation of Black people, extending the colonial regime of control and systemic violence against them into an entirely new domain. Using discursive analysis as its principal methodology, this paper will capture the narrative at the heart of modern space discourses and present an alternative Black feminist imagining of space exploration and futures. This research will be grounded in Black feminist scholarship, Afrofuturism, and theories of temporality. My analysis will rely on the writings of Black feminist scholars including Tiffany Lethabo King, Chandra Prescod-Weinstein, Kimberley D. McKinson, Katherine McKittrick, and Stephanie Jones, among others. This paper will also seek to mobilize and build an argument for using Afrofuturism as a Black feminist methodology of resistance which places Black temporal experiences at the centre of its analysis. A collective embrace of Afrofuturism as a methodology, I argue, could inform liberated sustainable futures and deter the replication of systemic violence in outer space. By enabling scholars to challenge normative constructions of history and futurity which relegate Black lives to the margins, Afrofuturism can assist both scholars and a wider population to imagine space-bound futures beyond the predominant colonial understandings found in present discourse. Afrofuturism may therefore be understood as one means of building toward sustainable solutions for a better tomorrow in a challenging domain. The promises of human prosperity in outer space should likewise reveal new possibilities for just and equitable futures for Black people. A Black feminist lens of Afrofuturism may assist us in imagining creatively beyond present oppressive systems to identify where opportunities exist for collective movements to centre Black radical joy and to undertake intentional processes of future-making. In building its argument, this paper will highlight the importance of countering the lack of initiative taken by state, corporate, and other spacefaring actors to decolonize how each constructs outer space and humanity’s relationship with it, including the other worlds it holds, both within and beyond our current reach. In the conclusion, I will identify possible next steps, including an appeal that more scholars become engaged in the practice of collective imagining, proposing the integration of additional modes of future-making (i.e., Indigenous futurisms). Lastly, I will encourage more intentional generation of thought, research, and action on the matter of equitable human futures in outer space. This entails urging the movement of academic engagement beyond theorization and into praxis, such as by identifying applications of Black feminist and Afrofuturist analysis into both national and international policy and governance (especially on the critical issue of establishing space norms).

Nancie Knight, Athabasca University

Discovering harmony: Reconnecting with nature through the art of storytelling

Storytelling of all kinds remains a hugely influential and beloved experience for many. From tales told by the campfire to legends and myths, the prevalence of storytelling in our daily lives is a clear signal of its influence, but what is it exactly that makes it so powerful? Its power lies in its ability to enrich our comprehension, forge shared experiences, and fundamentally shape our perceptions of the world. In a world where environmental destruction, inequity and patriarchal systems continue to harm and oppress, storytelling can be used as a powerful tool for advancing environmental activism and advocating for a more equitable and sustainable world. This study delves into storytelling as a catalyst for change, exploring the interconnectedness of gender, ecology, and storytelling. It highlights how narratives shaped through eco-feminist lenses can challenge existing power structures, nurture a deeper connection with nature, and mobilize collective action by changing perceptions. This study begins by exploring the effectiveness of storytelling in education, drawing on the experiences of educators and activists who use story to spark reflection and guide discussions. The success of storytelling in education can be attributed to its ability to create emotional connections that allow readers to consider their place in the world. However, this power extends beyond the ability to influence the reader. It extends to the storyteller, connecting those with shared experiences and creating a sense of community, belonging, and support. When both the storyteller and the reader become active participants, they become part of the story, creating increased understanding with an emotional connection that can lead to thought-provoking reflections and powerful changes in behaviour. Storytelling then, can be used as a tool to spark reconnection with nature, deepen connections or prompt a further exploration of spiritual connections that challenge existing power structures that harm both women and nature. Storytelling is an established method for creating connection and change, but to truly claim the potency of this tool and demonstrate deep care for the environment, storytellers must be willing to share personal experiences with emotional and meaningful language, placing personal experiences back into the story. By immersing ourselves back into the story, we can bring nature back into the centre of our narratives, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and all life. Before we can truly bring nature back into the narrative, however, we must consider how we tell stories, from the language we use to the style of the story, and finally, by incorporating concepts of ecofeminism into the plot. Building on the examination of story in education, this study explores the use of emotive language and immersive techniques in storytelling to create deeper connections between individuals and nature. More importantly, the paper explores the importance of centring nature in narratives, giving voice to all living beings and challenging existing power structures. Stories that centre nature in the narrative, giving voice to all living things rather than centring the focus on humankind, also have the potential to connect with listeners and demonstrate our vital connection to all beings on Earth. Making these impactful changes to stories and sharing stories that emphasize ecofeminist ideologies can unite our experiences with nature, leading to much-needed environmental actions that will create a more sustainable future for all life.