Uncle Sam Wants You to Trade, Invest, and Shop! Relocating the Battlefield in the Gendered Discourses of the Pre- and Early Post-9/11 Period

The events of 9/11 shifted into prominent view the interconnected discourses of security and finance. The role of individuals and corporations in securing the state in its political and economic dimensions appears to some to be changing. This change is one of dominance and demand in identity terms, shifting back and forth between gendered citizen-consumer, citizen-investor, and citizen-soldier. Participation in the formal market is patriotic, trading is a defense of a way of life against outside threats, and in the first few days after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, investors/consumers/workers were the first to be in a position to demonstrate their resolve. The dominant discourse reinvests meaning in such a way that reinterprets the actions of individuals and corporations as heroic, "defensive," and patriotic. "Real" men and women are made heroes because of their actions and because of what they represent—they are at once workers/investors/consumers, all soldiers in the "civilizational fight" for an American-led "market civilization" (Gill 1995).