Title
Judging Sex in War
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Drawing on legal and literary wartime accounts, Engle argues that wartime rape should not be viewed as a fate worse than death by feminists and humanitarians because it robs women of their sexual, political, and military agency. Reads For Whom the Bell Toll’s Pilar and Maria as unconventional, though at times stereotypical, challenges to the dominant narratives told about women in war that traditionally reduces them to the role of victim. Concludes that “Overstating gender differences through the universalizing of harms experienced by women in war is likely to lead to the proliferation of legal rules and popular understandings that further entrench the power dynamics we often seek to combat.”
Published in
Michigan Law Review
Volume
106
Issue
6
Date
2008
Pages
941-961
Citation
Engle, Karen. “Judging Sex in War.” Michigan Law Review 106, no. 6 (April 2008): 941-61.