Bananas, Beaches and Bases

It is worth imagining, therefore, what would happen to international politics if more nationalist movements were informed by women’s multilayered experiences of oppression. If more nation-states grew out of feminist nationalists’ ideas and experiences, then community identities within the international political system might be tempered by cross-national identities. Resolutions of interstate conflicts would be more sustainable, because the significance of women to those conflicts would be considered directly. They would not be dismissed as too trivial to be the topic of serious state-to-state negotiation.

“When feminist solidarity networks are today proposed and extended globally, without a firm sense of identity—national, racial and class—we are likely to yield to feminist models designed by and for white, middle-class women in the industrial West and uncritically adopt these as our own.”

When any nationalist movement becomes militarized, either on its leaders’ initiative or in reaction to external intimidation, male privilege in the community is likely to become even more entrenched.

femininity, masculinity, marriage, “home,” and the international system were integrally tied to one another.

If women, they argued, are kept in marginalized roles as domestic caregivers—by men who are lovers or by fathers or husbands—then the chances of halting foreign-financed invasion, ending an unfair military-bases treaty, or holding accountable a multinational corporate employer will be slim.

women, they argued, are kept in marginalized roles as domestic caregivers—by men who are lovers or by fathers or husbands—then the chances of halting foreign-financed invasion, ending an unfair military-bases treaty, or holding accountable a multinational corporate employer will be slim.

The more imminent and coercive the threat posed by an adversary’s power—a foreign force or the local government’s police—the more successful men in the community are likely to be in persuading activist women to keep quiet, to swallow their grievances, to suppress their analyses.

femininity, masculinity, marriage, “home,” and the international system were integrally tied to one another.

had learned the importance of revering women, especially mothers and “the right girl.”

he had learned the importance of revering women, especially mothers and “the right girl.”