 | Postfeminist War: Women in the Media-Military-Industrial Complex Subjects: Women soldiers in mass media; Women soldiers -- United States; Women and the military -- United States; Militarism -- United States; Mass media and war -- United States; Feminism and mass media -- United States; Media representations and practices that have emerged out of contemporary wars have been well documented by a wide array of books and articles. These treatments, however, have been less attentive to how cultural constructions of military personnel and war itself figure in the depiction of the incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Post-Feminist War , Mary Douglas Vavrus argues that all of these identity categories are integral to our understanding of those fighting, saved, or victimized by war. She considers two important questions: how the construction of gender, race, and class in media are productive of régimes of truth regarding war and military life, and how such constructions may also intensify militarism. By examining news and documentary media produced since September 11, 2001, Vavrus demonstrates that news narratives that include women use feminism selectively in gender equality narratives, which tend to reinforce historically resonant gender, race, and class identity constructions. She ultimately asserts that such reporting advances post-feminism, which, in tandem with banal militarism, subtly pushes military solutions for an array of problems women and girls face. MARY DOUGLAS VAVRUS is an associate professor in the communication studies department at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She is the author of Postfeminist News: Political Women in Media Culture . |
