Working-class women’s military torture participation exposes feminism’s myth of female moral superiority

Evidence

Barbara Ehrenreich, for example, confessed that a certain kind of feminism died within her when she saw the photos – the feminism ‘that saw men as perpetual perpetrators’ and women as morally superior. For her, then, the participation of women in these acts of torture simply meant that anyone could become a torturer under the right circumstances. The circumstances for Ehrenreich were simply about war – working-class women who wanted an education joined the military and found themselves in the midst of ‘our species’ tragic propensity for violence.’ — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 182

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates about women’s complicity in state violence, relevant to Sherene Razack’s own argument that white women signify through race in empire.