Depoliticisation of Women’s Violence in Armed Resistance: The Pathologisation, Eroticisation, and Aestheticisation of Leila Khaled in Contemporary Media

Author: Risa Narsinghani

Abstract:

This paper explores how media depictions of women in armed resistance undermines women's political agency, specifically that of Leila Khaled, a Palestinian militant. Through engagement with various media platforms, and by situating the analysis within postcolonial and feminist international relations (IR) theory, the analysis highlights how representations of Leila Khaled alienate her from her political context. Rather than being recognised as a rational political actor engaged in anticolonial struggle, Khaled is consistently portrayed as a gendered aberration, reducing her to symbolic and consumable imagery, which reflects patriarchal and orientalist understandings of women's political violence. The paper contributes to the discipline by emphasising the role of media aesthetics in regard to political visibility, agency, and legitimacy; it argues for the importance of a decolonial feminist framework to adequately recognise women's roles in armed resistance as legitimate political actors rather than mere subjects of fascination.

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