In Disordered Violence: How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), Caron Gentry looks at how gender, race, and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings of terrorism as irrational, immoral and illegitimate. Gentry examines the profiles of 8 well-known terrorist actors. Gentry identifies the gendered, racial, and sexualized assumptions in how their stories are told. Additionally, she interrogates how the current counterterrorism focus upon radicalization is another way of constructing terrorists outside of the Western ideal. Finally, the book argues that mainstream Terrorism Studies must contend with the growing misogynist and racialized violence against women.
Beth Windisch is a national security practitioner. You can tweet her @bethwindisch.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices