Ein Geschlechterapparat: Folter und nationale Männlichkeit im „Krieg gegen den Terror“ der USA

Abstract

After the attacks of 9 / 11 / 2001, the U. S. government embarked on a project of “manning up”. The urgent pursuit of national manhood as a response to the attacks raises all kinds of questions about what gender is and how gender works. The author argues that the construction of sovereign national manhood is a justificatory apparatus that operates on multiple levels of human existence, including the material level of production. Because national manhood cannot actually be said to exist, it must be produced. The author considers the practice of torture as a key element of its production.