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At the 1998 First Ladies' Conference on Domestic Violence in San Salvadore, Clinton said, "Women have always been the primary victims of war."
It is one matter to champion feminist causes. But Clinton has been polarizing the discussion. If an academic citation to show that non-combatant "battle-age" males are the overwhelming targets of violence is necessary or desirable, then consider Effacing the Male: Gender, Misrepresentation, and Exclusion in the Kosovo War by Adam Jones, Ph.D. Published in Transitions: The Journal of Men's Perspectives, 21: 1-3 (2001).
Here's the abstract:
The Kosovo war of 1999 offered an excellent opportunity to analyze the representation of gender and violent victimization in the mass media. The present article focuses on the motif of "gendercide," or gender-selective mass killing -- in this case, of "battle-age" ethnic-Albanian men. A broad sample of media commentary is presented to demonstrate that "unworthy" male victims tend to be marginalized or ignored entirely in mass-media coverage. A trio of common marginalization strategies is discussed, and a theoretical framework of "first-order," "second-order," and "third-order" gendering is proposed to clarify the deficit in coverage. This deficit is then contrasted with the attention given to the victimization experiences of "worthy" victims, such as women, children, and the elderly. Finally, the small handful of responsible and insightful media reports on gender-selective atrocities against Kosovar men is evaluated for the alternative it may offer to "effacing the male" from coverage of war and violence.
The emphasis on womens' health has been to the detriment of black mens' health; this is another story. The point is that Clinton's words and record suggests that she will remain a polarizing figure.
