Description
This paper rethinks how gender, media, and power intersect in nuclear history, asking how feminist peace journalism can reshape global narratives of security and justice. Drawing from interdisciplinary frameworks across feminist theory, media studies, and peace research, it interrogates how women have been portrayed in nuclear discourse from the patriotic spectacle of the 1950s “Miss Atomic Bomb” pageants to the haunting imagery of the Hiroshima Maidens. Such portrayals not only aestheticised nuclear violence but also silenced women’s agency as scientists, policymakers, and peace advocates.
Using Critical Discourse Analysis and archival media review, this research exposes how gendered symbolism has sustained patriarchal understandings of war and deterrence. It further explores how peace journalism, as a counter-hegemonic practice, can challenge these epistemic injustices by reframing women not as victims but as active narrators and knowledge producers.
In line with BISA’s 2025 theme of “New Thinking, New Directions,” this paper calls for a transformation in how international studies conceptualises security moving from state-centric paradigms to intersectional, human-centred approaches rooted in epistemic justice. By centring women’s experiences from both the Global North and South, the study advances a more inclusive and decolonial understanding of peace communication. Ultimately, it proposes a framework for reimagining nuclear discourse through feminist peace journalism that restores visibility, agency, and historical justice to silenced voices.
Keywords: Feminist Peace Journalism, Nuclear Narratives, Epistemic Justice, Gender and Security, Media Representation, Global South, Cultural Memory, Decolonial International Studies
