Brent Sendayen
Section 3
Week 6 Blog

The “Monster, Terrorist, Fag” article from Puar and Rai discusses the perceptions of and attempts to explain terrorism by Americans. An interesting section is the theory from Jerrold Post that terrorism is bred from “negative sense of self”. The two personalities described seem to align with the two types of terrorists we normally see: domestic and multinational terrorists. First, the “anarchic-ideologue” describes the lone outcast that feels wronged by society and shoots people in a high school, movie theater, or army base. These terrorists pose the most imminent threat to American lives and deserve the attention of these terrorism experts. Second, the “nationalist-secessionist” describes the terrorist cells that rise up against outside forces and governments, such as those operating in Palestine or the various Middle Eastern countries that the West has meddled with. Another interesting take is the simplification of complex Middle Eastern issues to sexual frustration or heteronormativity. These narratives tend to trivialize or distract from fundamental issues with how we treat people who feel marginalized from being used as pawns by international powers like the US. It's difficult to change societal perspectives, so when will the narrative shift to one that takes terrorism for what it really is?