Feminist Deconstruction of Ontological Security

The article performs a feminist deconstruction of the traditional concept of ontological security in international relations, revealing its key limitations – state-centrism and gender blindness. The article discusses how domi-nant theories systematically marginalize women’s experiences and ignore social reproduction and intersec-tional oppression. A three-dimensional analytical framework is proposed as an alternative. First, embodimen-tality – integrating bodily experience; second, relationality – recognizing the role of emotional labor in safety; third, intersectionality – accounting for intersecting systems of oppression (race, gender, class). This paper cri-tiques the reduction of security to military-state aspects, and argues for the inclusion of everyday practices (so-cial reproduction) at the core of the analysis. The paper calls for a transformation of security policy towards lib-erating women’s subjectivity and overcoming the public/private dichotomy.