Bananas, Beaches And Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

Content Warning: This section refers to sex and human trafficking, sexual enslavement, sexual harassment and assault, and domestic violence.

International politics are far broader than mainstream experts assume, and politics reach well beyond the currently defined public sphere. Recognizing women, especially those in unnoticed positions, provides necessary insight into the actual workings of international politics. Enloe asks where the women are and who benefits from that placement. In doing so, she puts a spotlight on men’s behavior and argues that patriarchy is “ingeniously adaptable.” To sustain its continuation, the men who have vested interests scheme and maneuver. For example, they have resorted to updated language, tokenism, and cooptation.

The relations between governments depend on controlling women as symbols, consumers, workers, and emotional comforters. Enloe compares Pocahontas and Carmen Miranda, though they were three centuries apart. A Powhatan, Pocahontas married an English colonist and went to London, “as if confirming that the colonial enterprise was indeed a civilizing mission” (xxi). A Brazilian grocer’s daughter, Miranda became “a Hollywood star and the symbol of an American president’s Latin American policy” (xxi). Both women, whom men invoked as symbols and stereotypes, died prematurely. Enloe investigates what kinds of power have built the international political system.