Ontological insecurity and the gendered postcolonial subject

Ontological insecurity dominates the narratives of fear and anxiety that are perpetuated by populist and authoritarian regimes today. In these discourses and imaginings, specific ideas of ‘security’ are desired as a return to order or an imagined or idealized past. In this chapter, we focus on how those narratives regularly rely on gendered and colonial framings that are associated with weakness and disorder. Populist authoritarians then offer solutions to insecurity that demand a style of rule that is often hierarchical, patriarchal, and racially ordered. We illustrate these narratives of ontological insecurity through a focus on postcolonial bordering practices, how gender and emotion feature in discourses of the nation, and the perceived sense of loss of national identity and masculinized ideas of strength. Furthermore, we explain how understanding ontological insecurity invokes new methodological frameworks and suggest additional avenues of exploration and adaptation.