A New Resource: "The Body of War: Media, Ethnicity and Gender in the Break-up of Yugoslavia"
How was feminist rhetoric affected by the war in Yugoslavia? This book questions the media attention on women directly involved in the conflict - most notably the protesters. It argues that the media representation of the female protesters shaped the language of how women were perceived.
The newspapers often characterised the women as either militant or mindless puppets of political actors and opinions. The book addresses that in the media, motherhood is presented as powerful and a form of vulnerability at the same time - mothers create life, yet women are often the victims of rape in war. Women are probably the most vulnerable, making up some 80 percent of refugees of war. According to Amnesty International, 30-50 percent of women from Kosovo villages, of “child-bearing age” were raped by Serbian forces. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, some 20,000-50,0000 women were raped during the conflict - this is another area of the ill-effects of war and irresponsible rhetoric to women - that is addressed in this book.
By: Zarkov, D.
Published by:Duke University Press
Volume: Feminist Review
Published: December 2007
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