Menu Close

Dualisms and the Representation of Victimhood in the Conflict Spectrum: An Ecofeminist Reading of Adaokere Agbasimalo’s The Forest Dames

This paper explores Agbasimalo’s representation of universal victimhood as a factor in the eco-feminist thrust that reconsiders the male/female binary oppositions established by patriarchal institutions. Some of the recent works emanating from the perpetrator-victim discourse in war or conflict studies conceptualise men as mindless oppressors on the one hand, and women, children and the environment as helpless and defenceless victims on the other hand. The exclusion or insignificant consideration given to the phenomenon of male-victimhood thus far, has created gender acrimony and a polarised struggle to root out social and environmental injustice. The non-consideration of male victimhood has formed a significant gap in scholarship which this study seeks to address. Using Plumwood’s approach to ecofeminism as a theoretical frame and basing on the qualitative model of data collection and analysis, the paper argues that patriarchy is the real problem since it entrenches mental dispositions, orientations and gender roles that set the psychological frame for the unprintable actions of soldiers who are yet to be liberated from institutional or cultural conditioning. The study concludes that the universality of victimhood in the conflict spectrum invalidates the male-female binary opposition and that both genders can unite to fight against patriarchy for an egalitarian society.