Presentations - Female suicide bombers

The presentations on human trafficking and gender and the military fit together really well. Even though human trafficking is not intrinsically tied to military activity, the themes of abuse, sexuality, and rape are central to both. The human trafficking presentation was eye-opening because it's something that I know about, but not something that I think, see or hear about often. I think it's something that's often ignored. Like many other gender issues, people don't want to think about it and by denouncing it, think that enough is being done.

Female Suicide Bombers

The reading on female suicide bombers was frustrating because it made arguments about social constructs, biological facts and cultural norms all at the same time. The idea of female suicide bombers in itself is driven by so many different factors that it's difficult to analyze it in a particular frame and negate that certain factors are important. I don't think it is valid to argue that the idea of femininity and the role of a woman is completely socially constructed and at the same time argue that suicide bombers are acting out of free will. I also thought it was interesting that the author criticized viewing female suicide bombers as victims because they are the ones carrying out the attacks, regardless of sex or gender. I think that both men and women suicide bombers are victims and should be seen as such. They are victims of war and of the society in which they live. Analyzing who is a victim and who isn't is another argument, though, and one that is also very complicated. The article does talk about victimization in terms of perception and that is definitely valid because the actions of people are perceived differently based on sex. However, if one believes that actions and the logic behind actions are driven by (at least in part) the perceptions of their actions by others, then it follows that it's reasonable to judge the actions of men and women differently.