Enloe Response

In the “Interview with Cynthia Enloe,” Enloe discusses that she “pinpointed dilemmas that maybe other people haven’t defined in quite the same way. One of those dilemmas, [she] realized, was how does one make visible mass rapes of women by men as a systematic weapon of war in a way that does not turn those raped women into new commodities: commodities for our angst; commodities for human rights activism; commodities, especially, for galvanizing the next generations of nationalists” (660).
People as commodities certainly generally holds a negative connotation, but how is being a “commodit[y] for human rights activism” a negative implication? The only question that needs to be asked is, how do can “visible mass rapes of women by men as a systematic weapon of war” be prevented, and be stopped? The rape of women as a weapon of war is a serious issue in the world today. It is also an example of why the role and perception of women in different societies is important examine. The reason that men use rape as a weapon of war comes from tradition and perception, and through understanding why it will be easier to try and stop it. It would also be interesting to understand why certain societies do not use rape as a weapon of war, and what gender-relation differences exist between society who do and do not have this tradition. Thus, it is issues like rape as a weapon at war that show the importance of studying international relations from a feminist perspective in certain cases.
Enloe’s thoughts about examining how raped women could be turned into commodities is not compelling, though. It is an example of why many people may be hesitant to listen to feminist theory. Although women as commodities may be another issue in itself, in this case, discussing raped women as a commodity turns the focus away from the real issue. Enloe should examine the problem within the context of the society, not from how the knowledge of the problem will be turned into a commodity by outside parties. The only type of commodity that Enloe lists that is important is the commodity “for galvanizing the next generations of nationalists” because this commodity directly impacts the problem, and seeks to understand how the society involved will react.