Totius Bellum - Konceptualisering av militärt- och socialt aktörskap utifrån feministisk teoribildning

Sammanfattning: When conflicts are depicted, men are often seen as primary actors, both regarding the military as well as the political sphere, which entails that women are excluded and merely seen as victims. The conventional theories concerning war therefore solely encapsule half of the population. This essay seeks to explore the relation between military and social agency within the purview of a critical feminist theory, emphasizing the necessity of unveiling gender coded dynamics. By assessing and synthesizing existing theoretical arguments within critical feminist theory of war, this essay aims to lay the foundation for a new theoretical framework. This theoretical claim will reveal the necessity of contemplating conflicts in a holistic manner. Methodologically we study the medial depiction of the narrative surrounding the Kurdish YPJ militia in Syria, which vindicates the main theoretical approach. The theoretical claim is named totius bellum and serves to envelop the pertinent concepts that constitute a holistic perspective on wars. The essay finds that wars need to be observed as a complete spectrum of events - including both military and social dimensions - and not as individual components independent of each other. By acknowledging that the agency given during the war is directly conjoined to the agency afterwards, totius bellum implies that if women are to adopt meaningful social agency, formal and individual embrace of an independent mind in a moral sense is needed.