Mainstreaming Heteronormativity and Marginalizing the ‘Other’: Scrutinizing Gender in Security Studies
Security is a dynamic subject and has evolved over time. It is essential to move away from the dominant narrative of securing state to other pertinent realms and accept that the term 'gender' is relational and there are alternative ways of belonging to a particular gender. Gender Security studies varying gendered positionalities, their role in shaping the 'international' we inherit and how they are constantly subjected to mainstream conceptualization of war, peace and nation-state. It has been widely argued that the construction of modern state itself is a hetero male project wherein other gendered identities have no space to place, identify themselves and are hence disconnected.
The concept of security is ambiguous and is contested extensively. Relativity of security in terms of who is threatened, from what, by what means, for what purpose and by whom allows one to interpret security aspects between many states, within a state and non-state actors in a broader context. It points to the fact that security can be understood from different perspectives and positionalities. For instance, Right to Education to women despite being universally recognized appears to be a threat for regime survival in Taliban and in other highly autocratic and conservative societies. In the case of Gender Security, referent object would be the victimized sections of the society namely homosexuals and women while the threat would be from a highly masculine state. In order to secure these affected groups, an international collaboration, diplomatic efforts or people initiatives (means and securing agents) would be required to put crimes against humanity to an end and empower them to live a reasonable dignified life (purpose).
It would be interesting to analyze relativity of security with the help of a few examples:
1. Gendered Violence and the Horrors of Partition-
Women and the Partition of India. Sources: Google Arts and Culture.
If people specifically women are considered referent objects, the legacy of partition speaks volumes about dynamics of different genders and continuing patriarchal relations. Women were treated as objects by their families and communities and were raped and publicly assaulted in the name of honor. Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Violence, revealed that 75000 women were abducted on both the sides of the border. Additionally, their bodies were used as a means to serve various purposes like branding of breasts and tattooing genitalia with religious symbols. They were also meant to perform forced prostitution and experienced immense mental and psychological trauma.
2. Trans Bodies as Terrorist Bodies and No Entry of Gay Sex in The Indian Army
A transgender military veteran digs into the TSA's history of identifying gender-nonconformity in airline passengers as a possible security threat. Sources: Advocate.
Transportation Security Administration in the United States has condemned crossdressing in order to institutionalize suspicion of gender nonconformity. Moreover, this is identified as a terrorist act that might put national security at stake. Therefore, homosexuals have to confront rigorous body scanning procedures and heightened scrutiny to fit themselves into Western societal standards of being man or woman. The fact that there exist people who might not follow the strictly defined gender binary remains absolutely sidelined.
Similarly, the decision by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat to completely disregard homosexuality in the Indian Armed forces reflects decriminalizing of the LGBT community. Military Industrial Complex and various structures of war rest on the traditional discourse of manhood (rationality and toughness) that categorizes different gendered bodies, glorifying some and victimizing the rest. This shows how the very nature of forces is deeply embedded in conservative ideas and inherent biases, their reluctance towards certain identities and constant targeting of them.
All these instances demonstrate an excessive deployment of coercion and forces by states to target what it considers to be a source of 'threat and suspicion.' The state and its forces (threat) feel threatened and decriminalize certain gendered bodies (referent object) for vested interests. Homophobia centered around modern-day nation-state led it to pursue securitization against a group of gendered communities and unquestionably normalize its established conceptions of war, peace and military force. Gendered violence of partition, use of surveillance technologies against people from alternative sexualities and an exclusive character of the Armed Forces perpetually engage in an 'othering process' to legitimize mainstream state-centric narratives. Therefore, there is a need of deepening and broadening the conceptions of security so that various other dimensions (social security, environmental security etc.) that can be categorized under referent objects and threats also become a part of Security Studies and make it an inclusive field of study. With reference to Robert Cox, critical theory plays a role in questioning the growing military character of the state and resulting human rights crisis and provide access to other state and non-state actors to make significant contributions to look at gender. While problem solving theories help in configuring an objective reality and explaining a science of war, critical theory's intervention could give a social science of it. Rather than involved in producing a certain set of subjects, it would consider differences in relativity, subjectivities and positionalities in theorizing Gender Security. The fact that political economy of state and war undermines individual security by valorizing sacrifice can be tackled by bringing in an emancipatory approach to security that lets people to move away from the negative dimension of security as threat to the one that acknowledges their potential, provides a 'minimum area of non-interference' and liberates them from structural and other forms of violence. Relativity of security in Gender Studies presents a theoretical framework to interpret and conceptualize security from an altogether different world that not only complicates the phrase 'mainstreaming Heteronormativity and Marginalizing the Other' but also acknowledges substantial contributions and experiences of multiple gendered identities at play. It also offers a way to make securitization and othering process a component of 'normal politics' so that deliberations and discussions find their way and constructive policy making is possible. Since, the issue of Gender Security is transboundary in nature, relativity of security has considered a web of complex processes, interlinkages and patterns that shape ideas of war, peace and threat to develop a holistic and comprehensive way of thinking about the world.
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