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Family values? Sexism and heteronormativity in Feminist Evolutionary Analytic (FEA) research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

Helen M. Kinsella  and
Laura Sjoberg
Helen M. Kinsella
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Laura Sjoberg*
Affiliation:
University of Florida
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, we focus on the subset of evolutionary theorising self-identified as Feminist Evolutionary Analytic (FEA) within security studies and International Relations. We offer this accounting in four sections. First, we provide a brief overview of the argument that reproductive interests are the ‘origins’ of international violence. Second, we break down the definitions of gender, sex, and sexuality used in evolutionary work in security studies generally and in FEA specifically, demonstrating a lack of complexity in FEA’s accounts of the potential relations among the three and critiquing their essentialist heteronormative assumptions. Third, we argue that FEA’s failure to reflect on the history and context of evolutionary theorising, much less contemporary feminist critiques, facilitates its forwarding of the state and institutions as primarily neutral and corrective bulwarks against male violence. Fourth, we conclude by outlining what is at stake if we fail to correct for this direction in feminist, IR, and security research. We argue that FEA work misrepresents and narrows the potential for understanding and responding to violence, facilitating the continued instrumentalisation of women’s rights, increased government regulation of sexuality, and a more expansive form of militarism.

Keywords

GenderEvolutionFeminismWarConflictTerrorism
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 260 - 279
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2018 

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References

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