Womanhood 'under terror': an investigation into the embodied experience of Jewish-Israeli women living in a protracted conflict zone

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Berick-Aharony, Omna (2009) Womanhood 'under terror': an investigation into the embodied experience of Jewish-Israeli women living in a protracted conflict zone. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis constructs femininity within secular Jewish-Israeli socio-culture and considers the influence of 'living under terror' on models of womanhood within this culture. It is my contention that as a Western affiliated culture, Jewish-Israeli mainstream culture tends to deploy its women to buffer the existential anxiety endured by the whole society. As in other preservations of complex power hierarchies this is done through perpetuating certain models of womanhood within mainstream discourse, endowing them with the aura of naturalness. In this thesis I further argue that the global discourse on terrorism has added a significant layer to these models within the last decade. Furthermore, by juxtaposing Terror Management theory and Objectification theory, I show how sexual objectification of women, perceived as a Western value, heightens the over-sexualisation of secular Jewish-Israeli women.

Item type Thesis (PhD thesis)
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/15803
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 2002 Cultural Studies
Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Communication and the Arts
Historical > FOR Classification > 1701 Psychology
Keywords women; feminity; terrorism; Jewish women; Israeli women; war zones; socialising; psychology; conflict anxiety
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