This lecture draws on two recent moments in the “War on Terror” — the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and a US Military study of “pedophilia” in Afghanistan — to analyze the inextricability of masculinity and militarism and the centrality of race and sexuality in nationalist projects of war and violence. The lecture suggests, in particular, that anxieties about the stability of hegemonic forms of white, “patriotic” American masculinity are increasingly assuaged through the identification — and dehumanization — of improperly sexed/gendered Muslim men.
This lecture draws on two recent moments in the “War on Terror” — the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and a US Military study of “pedophilia” in Afghanistan — to analyze the inextricability of masculinity and militarism and the centrality of race and sexuality in nationalist projects of war and violence. The lecture suggests, in particular, that anxieties about the stability of hegemonic forms of white, “patriotic” American masculinity are increasingly assuaged through the identification — and dehumanization — of improperly sexed/gendered Muslim men.
Data collected at Bucknell demonstrate that approximately 10% of male students admit to perpetrating sexual assault at least once while on campus, whereas approximately 40% of female students report being assaulted here. These and related findings will be reviewed, and questions will be raised about men’s responsibility for sexual assault.