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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Megan ArmstrongORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This article explores militarism as a function of, and response to, ontological insecurity through speculative fictions of a zombie apocalypse, specifically the 2013 film World War Z (WWZ). It begins with the question: why is the zombie apocalypse so terrible for women? The zombie apocalypse genre relies on existing political and social conditions to articulate anxieties and vulnerabilities and to present avenues for resistance or, as I argue is the case for WWZ, to reassert the norms of dominant power structures as a kind of salvation. WWZ is a form of everyday theorizing that highlights the connections between militarism, gender, and ontological insecurity and that asserts the need to return to “traditional” (Western-centric, heteropatriarchal) values to save ourselves. The article presents the zombie as a knowledge system, analyzing the political work that the zombie does as a materialization of ontological insecurity and its reaffirmation of the necessity of a heteropatriarchal militarism and masculinist protection. Like many films in the genre, WWZ entrenches the necessity of a militarized response to the end days and relies on the trope of the “Just Warrior,” here supported by international institutions, to save the day.
Author(s): Armstrong MA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Feminist Journal of Politics
Year: 2023
Volume: 25
Issue: 5
Pages: 801-818
Online publication date: 25/05/2023
Acceptance date: 07/12/2022
Date deposited: 13/06/2023
ISSN (print): 1461-6742
ISSN (electronic): 1468-4470
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2023.2208140
DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2023.2208140
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