Gender and Drone Warfare

Clark, Lindsay C.

doi:10.4324/9780429507472

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“….’ (Bentley, 2018: 93–94). Where interview data has been collected, some experiences have been described as ‘horrifying’ (Linebaugh, 2013) and ‘traumatic’ (Chow, 2013) and it is easy to understand why scenarios like watching ‘[IS fighters] just killing everyone’ (Lee, 2018: 45) or having a ‘front row of watching our own soldiers getting blown up’ (Clark, 2019: 118) could cause distress to those watching. It is therefore not surprising when individuals note ‘I’ve seen one or two videos which I wish I hadn’t watched .…”

Section: The Women Of Drone Warfarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some have argued that drone warfare is conducted from such a distance that it could be labelled ‘disembodied’ (Asaro, 2013; Coeckelbergh, 2013; Royakkers and Van Est, 2010). However, this is a limited perspective, both in terms of the embodiment of targeted populations/individuals and the embodiment of the distanced crews (Acheson et al, 2014; Clark, 2019; Daggett, 2015; Wilcox, 2015, 2017). The idea of (dis)embodiment is an integral point of contestation because of the gendered discourses that associate the (denigrated) feminine with the body (and its limitations) in opposition to the association between the (valourized) masculine and the mind (Peterson and Runyan, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Delivering life, delivering death: Reaper drones, hysteria and maternity

Clark

2021

Security Dialogue

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Like all warfare, drone warfare is deeply gendered. This article explores how this military technology sediments or disrupts existing conceptualizations of women who kill in war. The article using the concept of motherhood as a narrative organizing trope and introduces a ‘fictional’ account of motherhood and drone warfare and data from a ‘real life’ account of a pregnant British Reaper operator. The article considers the way trauma experienced by Reaper drone crews is reported in a highly gendered manner, reflecting the way women’s violence is generally constructed as resulting from personal failures, lost love and irrational emotionality. This irrational emotionality is tied to a long history of medicalizing women’s bodies and psychologies because of their reproductive capacities and, specifically, their wombs – explored in this article under the historico-medical term of ‘hysteria’. The article argues that where barriers to women’s participation in warfare have, in the past, hinged upon their (argued) physical weakness, and where technology renders these barriers obsolete, there remains the tenacious myth that women are emotionally incapable of conducting lethal operations – a myth based on (mis)conceptions of the ‘naturalness’ of motherhood and the feminine capacity to give life.

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Section: The Women Of Drone Warfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delivering life, delivering death: Reaper drones, hysteria and maternity

Clark

2021

Security Dialogue

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“…Finally, there is much work in feminist currents in the interdisciplinary field of critical military studies, which is situated in political science and international relations. Critical military studies has addressed similar themes to the study of everyday militarisms, such as how war's technologies and practices complicate gender binaries and feminist ontologies of modern war (Clark 2018(Clark , 2019, and the co-production of scientific (especially medical) knowledge with practices and frameworks of warfare (Howell 2017). However, critical military studies and the study of everyday militarisms remain separate, as evidenced by a lack of cross-citation between the two fields.…”

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confidence: 99%

Wartime’s “Undeniable Linkages”: Feminist Studies of Everyday Militarisms across Time and Space

Kirk

2023

Catalyst

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Feminist scholars and social movements have long been important voices against war and empire. Yet the era of global “endless wars” stretches behind and before us, challenging both our longstanding intellectual theories of violence and our political strategies for combating entrenched imperialism. This essay reviews three monographs in the emergent field of “everyday militarisms,” a new direction forward for understanding and criticizing global war in the past, present, and future. Threading connections between feminist science studies, cultural studies, and women of color and transnational feminisms, these texts ask us to more closely consider how elements of war show up in ordinary formations. I highlight how these books and the field of everyday militarisms more broadly makes us question what is understood as feminist work in both theory and method, through their shared and novel feminist theories of temporality. Together they open new understandings of ongoing systemic and state violence in the world today and different political paths forward in the face of seemingly intractable conflict.

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“…We wish to avoid unpacking the politics and gendered history of the term "unmanned" in UAV/UAS, but it is worth noting that its genesis probably arose from the military origins of drones, where the majority of drone pilots have been men, at least until very recently (e.g., the first woman American air force global hawk drone pilot was enlisted in 2017). We also wish to acknowledge the body of work that points to drone warfare itself being deeply "gendered" (e.g., see [9]). Of course, the drone allows the pilot to become physically distanced from acts of war, including killing.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Of course, the drone allows the pilot to become physically distanced from acts of war, including killing. So, in "unmanning" the aircraft, the military may view the drone as a means of "feminising" warfare, emasculating male pilots from "warrior" roles on the frontline [9]. This highlights the importance of critically situating linguistics within scientific writing and choosing terminologies thoughtfully.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%