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.

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