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Gendering Abbottabad: Agency and Hegemonic Masculinity in an Age of Global Terrorism

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Abstract

During the week after the United States’ raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, the media discussed women associated with the raid. Media reported that bin Laden hid “behind a woman” during the raid, describing bin Laden’s wife as a human shield. The press also discussed a photo of the Situation Room during the raid, calling attention to Hillary Clinton, who was thought to be gasping out of emotion in the photo. The narratives surrounding Amal Ahmed al-Sadah (married to bin Laden) and Secretary Clinton elicit insights into the place of gender vis-à-vis terrorism. In this paper, we content analyze non-op-ed newswires, debating how/whether the media framed al-Sadah and Clinton as political agents, feminine representations, and/or as superfluous to terrorism. We find that the press described Clinton as emotional and largely saw al-Sadah as passive and generically as a wife. Women were portrayed differently than men, who are considered active, but unemotional. Additionally, articles critiqued President Obama’s posture and clothing in the Situation Room and disparaged Osama bin Laden for unmanliness. We therefore conclude that the mainstream, print media press prioritizes hegemonic masculinity when discussing terrorism, overlooking women’s agency and ascribing feminine identities to women and marginalized masculinities to certain men.

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Notes

  1. Several articles were false negatives, in that they did not deal with the Abbottabad raid nor the White House photo. Several others were television transcripts. Television transcripts were removed from the sample, and the data herein refers only to newswires. Additionally, duplicate wires were removed from the sample.

  2. Khairiah Saber and Siham Sabar have university educations, with the former having obtained a Ph.D.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University, PO BOX 15036, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    Lori Poloni-Staudinger

  2. Social Science Division, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA, 90263, USA

    Candice Ortbals

Authors
  1. Lori Poloni-Staudinger
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  2. Candice Ortbals
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lori Poloni-Staudinger.

Appendix: Situation Room Photo

Appendix: Situation Room Photo

figure a

The iconic Situation Room photo. From www.whitehouse.gov.

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Poloni-Staudinger, L., Ortbals, C. Gendering Abbottabad: Agency and Hegemonic Masculinity in an Age of Global Terrorism. Gend. Issues 31, 34–57 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-014-9117-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-014-9117-y

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