Synopses & Reviews
From Skirts Ahoy! to M*A*S*H, Private Benjamin, G.I. Jane, and JAG, films and television shows have grappled with the notion that military women are contradictory figures, unable to be both effective soldiers and appropriately feminine. In Soldiersandrsquo; Stories, Yvonne Tasker traces this perceived paradox across genres including musicals, screwball comedies, and action thrillers. She explains how, during the Second World War, women were portrayed as auxiliaries, temporary necessities of andldquo;total war.andrdquo; Later, nursing, with its connotations of feminine care, offered a solution to the andldquo;gender problem.andrdquo; From the 1940s through the 1970s, musicals, romances, and comedies exploited the humorous potential of the gender role reversal that the military woman was taken to represent. Since the 1970s, female soldiers have appeared most often in thrillers and legal and crime dramas, cast as isolated figures, sometimes victimized and sometimes heroic. Soldiersandrsquo; Stories is a comprehensive analysis of representations of military women in film and TV since the 1940s. Throughout, Tasker relates female soldiersandrsquo; provocative presence to contemporaneous political and cultural debates and to the ways that womenandrsquo;s labor and bodies are understood and valued.
Review
andldquo;All the chapters are impeccably researched and meticulously detailed, but itandrsquo;s Taskerandrsquo;s attention to small particulars, the kind many casual observers might miss (such as an offhand reference to a beauty parlor or the importance of costumes in andlsquo;transformation narrativesandrsquo;), and the complicated conclusions she draws, even when the films (or television shows) seem superficial on the surface, that really make the text. . . . Reading Taskerandrsquo;s analyses of these texts could make many rethink what is considered andlsquo;entertainingandrsquo; at the expense of women.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Richly illustrated, the book carefully explains the evolution f the icons, showing the provocation sof women soldiers not only to their collegial male warriors but also to the cultural values of both genders in both countries. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;I donandrsquo;t see how anyone can do serious scholarship that involves feminism and/or gender and/or film without having read Tasker.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Attentive to issues of race and class as well as gender, and sensitive to the range of volatile topics associated with the figure of the military woman, including violence, sexuality, and nationality, Soldiersandrsquo; Stories conscientiously provides the military woman a well-deserved visibility in cinema and media studies.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;... Soldiersandrsquo; Stories does more than fill a gap. It joins a wider discussion on how gendered assumptions persist amid womenandrsquo;s rising presence in the real-life military and other areas of American life. As Tasker aptly puts it, even in our own time andldquo;the military woman still requires explanationandrdquo; (p. 236). Thus the ultimate implication of the work is that purveyors of culture, and presumably much of the public, continue to regard the female soldier as a paradoxandmdash;not quite a soldier, Tasker tells us, but not quite a woman either.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] provocative and important bookandhellip;. [A] valuable study, clear in its purpose, and well supported by researchandhellip;. [Tasker] has written a comprehensive social and cultural history of how weandrsquo;ve been asked to view women in the military since World War II.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Soldiersandrsquo; Stories is an important, timely, and eminently readableandmdash;and teachableandmdash;cultural history. Yvonne Tasker takes the figure of the woman soldier in US and UK popular film and TV as a cultural flashpoint for examining the history of our collective thinking about war, violence, authority, sexuality, female embodiment, and gender trouble in the military.andrdquo;andmdash;Sharon Willis, author of High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film
Review
andldquo;What is so valuable about Yvonne Taskerandrsquo;s investigation of film and TV images of British and American military women is that she doesnandrsquo;t stop at the end of World War II. She keeps us attentive right through the Korean and Vietnam wars. She makes sure we track the ambivalences and confusions that women in militaries have provokedandmdash;among officials, directors, scriptwriters, and audiencesandmdash;over two generations. I have learned so much from Soldiersandrsquo; Stories.andrdquo;andmdash;Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimoandrsquo;s War, Emmaandrsquo;s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War
Synopsis
A comprehensive feminist analysis of representations of military women in film and television in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, from World War II to the present.
Synopsis
A comprehensive analysis of the changing representations of military women in American and British movies and TV programs from the Second World War to the present.
About the Author
“Soldiers’ Stories is an important, timely, imminently readable—and teachable—cultural history. Yvonne Tasker takes the figure of the woman soldier in US and UK popular film and TV as a cultural flashpoint for examining the history of our collective thinking about war, violence, authority, sexuality, female embodiment, and gender trouble in the military.”—Sharon Willis, author of High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film“What is so valuable about Yvonne Tasker’s investigation of film and TV images of British and American military women is that she doesn’t stop at the end of World War II. She keeps us attentive right through the Korean and Vietnam wars. She makes sure we track the ambivalences and confusions that women in militaries provoke—among officials, directors, scriptwriters and audiences—over two generations. I have learned so much from Soldiers’ Stories.”—Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo’s War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War
Table of Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
A Provocative Presence: Military Women in Visual Culture 1
Part One 19
1. Auxiliary Military Women 23
2. Invisible Soldiers: Representing Military Nursing 71
Part Two
3. Musical Military Women 115
4. Women on Top: Comedy, Hierarchy, and the Military Woman 139
5. Military Women and Service Comedy: M*A*S*H and Private Benjamin 173
Part Three 201
6. Controversy, Celebration, and Scandal: Military Women in the News Media 205
7. Conflict over Combat: Training and Testing Military Women 235
8. Scandalous Stories: Military Women as Victims, Avengers, and Investigators 255
Afterword 277
Notes 281
Bibliography 301
Index 309