Simona Sharoni’s piece on “Gendering Conflict and Peace in Israel/Palestine and the North of Ireland,” sheds light on the relationship between war and gender. Sharoni states that although “images attached to masculinity, femininity and gender relations in situations of overt political conflict are far from universal,” there are still some very insightful observations that come from viewing gender in the context of political conflicts. To see Israeli and Palestinian women use war to facilitate their own liberation elucidates the incredible power politics have to shape social norms. In other words, in the state of weakened political system (times of war), women and marginalized groups are able to break out of their socially oppressed roles. Sharoni states that “differences and similarities between and men and women are often shaped more by the particular social and political conditions that underlie the conflict than by inherent gender differences.” (201). How can this concept be applied specifically to the American gender binary system? What political structures have served to strictly enforce gender roles?