The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings

6. Middle-earth and Feminist Analysis of Conflict

—chapter 6— Middle-earth and Feminist Analysis of Con›ict [T]heir coming was like the falling of small stones that starts an avalanche in the mountains. —Gandalf Gandalf points out in the epigraph that in Middle-earth Hobbits have a huge impact on political affairs, despite their small stature. This ranges from Frodo, the Ring Bearer, who is critical to the outcome of the quest; to Sam, who supports him from the very beginning to the very end; to Merry and Pippin, who stimulate an uprising of the Ents that plays a key role in the downfall of Saruman. So, too, feminists argue that women and gender critically both in›uence and are a part of global politics in our world. In this chapter, we apply a gender-sensitive lens to LOTR and compare this to feminist analyses of World War I and the US War in Iraq. In that way we go beyond the problem-solving approach to these events of chapter 4 and apply one kind of critical approach to IR. This chapter refers to con›ict, as well as war, because of the concern within feminist theory about underlying power structures that contribute to con›ict beyond mainstream de‹nitions of war as organized interstate violence. We conclude by reviewing how feminist analyses that bring to bear a gendersensitive lens on politics create a stronger, more inclusive basis for understanding and explaining Order and Justice from the personal to the international. 139 what do gender-sensitive lenses say about war? Feminist scholarship argues that gendered masculine and feminine relations of power imbue politics. As discussed in the previous chapter, gender is not just a politically correct term for male or female (sex); instead, in feminist theory gender refers to a system of meaning that creates unequal relationships of power based in associated masculine (dominant) and feminine (subordinate) relationships. Feminist scholarship argues that gendered relationships (e.g., those involving men and women or even different states) are not “normal” but are created and constantly changing. It suggests that changes in these relationships must be examined closely both because they are important in their own right and because they provide the foundation for what orthodox scholarship de‹nes as “real” politics. Just as not counting cases of racial pro‹ling would not stop pro‹ling from happening, feminist scholarship argues that ignoring gender does not make it go away. Paying attention to gender by using a gender-sensitive—rather than gender-blind—analysis is critical to both recognizing and rectifying gendered problems. Scholarship that has applied a gender-sensitive lens to war suggests that war depends on telling gendered “war stories” based in a “logic of protection” and silencing or delegitimizing stories that challenge them (Hunt 2010; Tickner 2008; Goldstein 2001). The logic of protection is characterized by a “gallantly masculine man [who] can only appear in their goodness if we assume that lurking outside the warm familial walls are aggressors, the ‘bad’ men, who wish to attack them” (Young 2003: 4, quoted in Hunt 2010: 117). This kind of story “serves to reinforce patriarchal power and justify violence abroad to a frightened and uncritical public ‘at home’” (Hunt 2010: 117). It also silences or delegitimizes challenging alternative narratives that question the story or key elements of it—such as its heroic men, dependent women, dangerous public sphere, or secure private sphere. Figure 6 in the previous chapter illustrated how different lenses highlight different sides of what is seen as the problem—in this case, of war—and suggested why it is critical to apply a gender-sensitive (rather than gender-blind) lens to such problems in order to have a stronger basis for analysis. In other words, assessment takes place in three rather than two dimensions, as per ‹gure 5. Applying a gender-sensitive lens to global politics can be guided by asking two questions: ‹rst, where are the women; and second, what work is masculinity and femininity doing (Zalewski 2010)? 140 • the international relations of middle-earth While feminist scholarship addresses these kinds of questions across a broad range of areas, the sub‹eld of feminist security studies applies this approach to issues of war, peace, and security. It argues ‹rst that security should be de‹ned broadly rather than narrowly; second, that current understandings of security award unequal weight to values associated with femininity rather than masculinity; and third, that gender is critical...