Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies

What Feminism Has to Say about World War Z

9 What Feminism Has to Say about World War Z I’m woefully impractical. With World War Z coming, I have done little to strategize about provisions, am ill prepared when it comes to barricades and couldn’t handle a gun to save my life, quite literally. Ever the feminist, though, I am indignant over what will constitute this eventual zombie horde, and how both the spread of the virus and zombie-human engagement will play out in a patriarchal culture.1 In the event of World War Z, 1 It is possible that patriarchy would cease to exist if we had such a drastic paradigm shift as a zombie outbreak. Indeed, as long as there are no human beings to reinforce patriarchy, since patriarchy is social , it would cease to exist. Also, in the wake of World War Z, the few human beings left will fall into some sort of anarchy, so it is possible they will no longer need imbalanced power structures and will come together—despite old patriarchal and hierarchical frameworks—in the face of a common enemy. However, I have a feeling that both patriarchy and cockroaches will survive the apocalypse, at least as long as human beings live. I will demonstrate in this chapter how patriarchy will produce the kind of zombie community we will have, at least in the first waves of the attack, and how zombie confrontations will still be rooted in patriarchal ideas. Jen Rinaldi What Feminism Has to Say about World War Z 10 no doubt I’ll write furiously on the subject, maybe even plan a protest or two, and thus probably get eaten early. Perhaps, though, my tangents have some practical import; feminism deals with very concrete problems, after all. That is, perhaps my interests will aid in coming up with preventative measures, for planning ahead to lessen the spread of the virus might just involve redressing injustices that are already happening. My intention here is to apply a feminist analysis to the impending zombie outbreak. I will outline the main points in feminist theory ; then, with that theoretical lens, I will assess the makeup of the eventual undead community. Feminism in Brief Feminism is a philosophical and political movement that has gained ground in response to discrimination against minority groups, most prominently—but not limited to—women. The reason for this discrimination can be found in patriarchy: social and ideological2 organization that prioritizes and empowers men—usually non-disabled, wealthy, white men3—to the exclusion, and at the expense of, others. I am referring to the power structures we have built into our communities, power structures that affect politics, economics, law and social interaction . Patriarchy informs how we interact with one another and who has control over whom. Feminists of the 1960s and 1970s had concrete strategies for challenging patriarchy and pushing for social justice. Their 2 When I use the term “ideology,” I refer to our doctrine of beliefs or the collection of values and assumptions we draw from to make sense of and participate in a community. When our ideology is patriarchal, we operate within a system of assumptions about who deserves to be in control: the men, the wealthy, the non-disabled. 3 Not all men necessarily have authority. bell hooks has even argued in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center that men are disempowered under patriarchy because they have to cut out parts of themselves— that is, they cannot identify with things that have been designated feminine—to live successful lives. This means they must play the part, must be “manly” and even “normal,” to do well in a patriarchal community. Jen Rinaldi 11 agendas involved achieving equality for women in the household , education, the workplace, the political and legal spheres, and so forth. These feminists made significant strides without having to burn a single bra (though, yes, I suppose you could say some did threaten to do so4). In recent years, while still taking on these political objectives , feminists have become more theoretical, attacking patriarchal ideology that still dominates and controls women despite more reproductive freedom in the medical sphere and voting rights in political arenas. The latest feminists hold that femininity is a social construct, entirely the product of social conditions. They mean there is nothing essential to what is traditionally understood as feminine, nothing biological (thereby debunking all theories seeking to make sense of women’s supposedly poor driving...