In War and Gender, Joshua Goldstein proposed that "men's participation in combat depends on feminizing the enemy and enacting rape symbolically (and sometimes literally) thereby using gender to symbolize domination." It is Goldstein's position that men in combat use feminized needs to exert their dominance over the enemy, engaging in both literal and symbolic sexual acts to achieve both psychological and physiological superiority over the enemy. Gendered massacre in which males are executed, women are raped, and women and children enslaved has been observed in both the ancient and the modern world in such far flung places as the ancient Middle East and contemporary Bosnia. The castration of prisoners before or after execution, along with heterosexual and homosexual rape and insults and intimidation are typically used by men in combat to signify domination.
The rape of women, says Goldstein, is "a 'normal' accompaniment to war" that has been observed in virtually all geographic regions, cultures, and historical eras. The rape of women in time of war inflicts physical damage and humiliation upon female victims and emotional as well as psychological damage on the men who should have been able to protect them. This type of rape, which can include gang rape, has less to do with sex than it does with power and domination. Tragically, as Goldstein notes, in some cultures, women who are raped by the enemy are further victimized by their own male relatives who may kill them in order to redeem family "honor."
Goldstein develops his thesis throughout this chapter of the text, also pointing out that "the widespread homophobia found in modern armies may result from the need to feminize enemies." Most military organizations tend to be at least superficially homophobic. Homosexual men are devalued in many military organizations precisely because they are feminized and are therefore likely to be the victims of
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