ABSTRACT
For centuries, the patriarchal paradigm has been the predominant model of human social organization and conceptualization of social relations and processes. Among the most significant obstacles to the achievement of human security are the ways in which we think about it. The ways of thinking, the rationalizations of the gendered power order and the very language and metaphors with which we communicate have been conditioned by patriarchy. How this conditioning affects contemporary security discourse as communicated through the information media is shown by this article to be a significant obstacle to clarity of discourse about contemporary security challenges, such as the War on Terror. The article reveals the gendered, militarized language that dominates security discourse and the contestations of the very meaning of security.
