Disordered Violence

How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism

by CARON GENTRY

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS 2020

A feminist interrogation of how terrorism is constructed as a violence that upsets the order of international politics

• Strongly critiques ‘radicalisation’ by looking at UK Prevent and Prevent Tragedies

• Conducts 8 profiles of various terrorist actors, including Andreas Baader, Bernardine Dohrn, Leila Khaled, Dhanu, Anders Breivik, Nidal Hasan and Aafia Siddiqui

• Discusses the mass shooters Elliot Rodger, Dylann Roof and Anders Breivik in relation to misogynistic terrorism

Provides an intersectional feminist critique of terrorism studies

Disordered Violence looks at how gender, race, and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings of terrorism as irrational, immoral and illegitimate. Caron Gentry examines the profiles of 8 well-known terrorist actors. Gentry looks for gendered, racial, and sexualised assumptions in how their stories are told. Additionally, she interrogates how the current counterterrorism focus upon radicalisation 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 racialised violence against women.