While one side of the debate dismisses them as sheer obstacles, the other side argues that they are a resource that can be tapped into in order to effectively domesticate the reforms, since traditional leaders embody values and virtues of political accountability, transparency and probity. This assessment is situated within the context of the debate about the relevance of traditional leadership institutions or alternatively culture in the twin processes of democratisation and decentralisation. The image, or a similar one from the same film, appears frequently in articles about Ensslin, women terrorists, and the Red Army Faction more generally.This article seeks to demonstrate how traditional leaders have strategically exploited the decentralization policy reforms to reassert themselves as a dominant force in grassroots politics in Malawi. By extension, German left-wing terrorism is also sexualized and made pornographic. Ensslin's body, identity, and life are sexualized and made pornographic, the better to undermine her agency and the politics with which she is associated.
Ensslin's role in the film is conflated with real life, just as the preterrorist period is conflated with the terrorist period of her life. The film tends to be branded as pornography in newspaper and magazine articles, and indeed the caption reads: “Szenen aus dem Leben einer Terroristin: Pfarrerstochter Gudrun Ensslin als nackte Darstellerin in einem Pornofilm” (Scenes in the life of a woman terrorist: Pastor's daughter Gudrun Ensslin as naked actress in a porno film). It is a film still from Das Abonnement (1967), a short, experimental film that appeared three years before Ensslin went underground and the group formed that would become the RAF. An image of an almost naked Gudrun Ensslin dominates the article and page two of this Bild edition (fig. The article is titled “Das Leben der Terrormädchen: Potente Männer, scharfe Waffen” (The life of the Terror Girls: potent men, loaded weapons) and is designated as “Thema des Tages” (topic of the day). AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN BILD in February 1974 demonstrates how violence perpetrated by women can be redefined as a crime against gender and normal female sexuality.
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