Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, And Patriotutes
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Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a counter-narrative to the story of Rosie the Riveter, the icon of female patriotism during World War II. With her fist defiantly raised and her shirtsleeves rolled up, Rosie was an asexual warrior on the homefront. But thousands of women supported the war effort not by working in heavy war industries, but by providing morale-boosting services to soldiers, ranging from dances at officers' clubs to more blatant forms of sexual services, such as prostitution.While the de-sexualized Rosie was celebrated, women who used their sexuality - either intentionally or inadvertently - to serve their country encountered a contradictory morals campaign launched by government and social agencies, which shunned female sexuality while valorizing masculine sexuality. This double-standard was accurately summed up by a government official who dubbed these women patriotutes: part patriot, part prostitute.Marilyn E. Hegarty explores the dual discourse on female sexual mobilization that emerged during the war, in which agencies of the state both required and feared women's support for, and participation in, wartime services. The equation of female desire with deviance simultaneously over-sexualized and desexualized many women, who nonetheless made choices that not only challenged gender ideology but defended their right to remain in public spaces.
1 The Long Arm of the State 122 Prelude to War 423 "Reservoirs of Infection": Science, Medicine, and Contagious Bodies 614 "A Buffer of Whores": Military and Social Ambivalence about Sexuality and Gender 855 "Spell 'IT' to the Marines": The Contradictory Messages of Popular Culture 1106 Behind the Lines: The War against Women 1287 Conclusion 156App. 1 The Eight Point Agreement 165App. 2 The May Act 167App. 3 Federal Agencies: The Social Protection Division 169
