Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat: Gender, Sexuality, and Women in the Military

Notes

NOTES Notes to Chapter 1 1. For a more in-depth account of the entry of women into the military during World War II, see Melissa S. Herbert, “Amazons or Butterflies: The Recruitment of Women into the Military During World War II,” pages 50–68 in MINERVA: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military 9(2) (Summer 1991). 2. Although members of the military are referred to as airmen (sic), sailors, Marines, and so on, dependent on their branch, for ease of discussion I use the term “soldiers,” since the Army is the largest branch and in common parlance many refer to all members of the military as soldiers, regardless of branch. 3. There continues to be disagreement as to how the terms “sex” and “gender” should be used. Since the 1970s many have used “sex” to describe the physiological state of being female or male and “gender ” to describe the sociocultural concepts of the feminine and the masculine (e.g., “She is feminine). The advent of West and Zimmerman ’s theoretical conceptualization of gender as a process adds to the confusion. Some may question the appropriateness of using “gender” as a sociocultural state of being and as a process. For ease of discussion I will use the term “gender” as both, though the broader theoretical positioning of my research is in gender as interactional , rather than as the “possession” of a set of attributes identified as feminine and/or masculine. 4. The term “ethnomethodology” is attributed to Harold Garfinkel. See Wallace and Wolf, Contemporary Sociological The187 ory, pp. 295–300, and Garfinkel’s Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967). 5. Suzanne Pharr’s book, Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism (Inverness, Calif.: Chardon Press, 1988) articulates this connection and was critical to my introduction to that link. Notes to Chapter 2 1. While the ideal solution would be to eliminate the gendered nature of the occupational role, this research focuses on the very real problems encountered in a world where that is not the case. Thus, rather than speculate about how women might revolutionalize/feminize the military (Ruddick 1983), I have chosen to focus on their lives given the current constraints under which they operate. 2. Recent events such as the case of Lieutenant Kelly Flinn may be perceived as a challenge to this assertion. Nonetheless, in comparison to the other branches, I stand by my claim that the Air Force appears to be the most hospitable to women. 3. In her research on Army personnel, Laura Miller (personal communication, 1994) asked whether “being in the Army makes you less of a woman.” Nine percent of women (N=964) said it does, 57 percent said it makes no difference, and 31 percent said it makes one more of a woman. When men (N=865) were asked whether “being in the Army makes a female soldier less of a woman,” 21 percent said it does. Fifty-eight percent said it makes no difference, and 14 percent said it makes a female soldier more of a woman. Notes to Chapter 3 1. Although commitment ceremonies, weddings, and similar celebrations have become popular among some lesbians and gay men, I refer here to the traditional wedding ritual of heterosexual women and men. 2. One example is the emphasis on male bonding within squadlevel operations while simultaneously ridiculing men who are too 188 ■ NOTES close to each other. Investigation of an explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa immediately focused on the alleged homosexual relationship between two friends who spent a great deal of time with each other rather than at strip clubs with “the guys.” The Navy later retracted its accusations, albeit grudgingly. Notes to Chapter 4 1. This figure might have been even higher if women had always been permitted to wear earrings. It was only in the 1980s that women were granted permission to wear earrings with certain dress uniforms. 2. In 1978, when I attended basic training, one woman brought a battery-operated, lighted makeup mirror on our field exercises. 3. The subsample used in this table is composed of those women who indicated that they had engaged in some type of closed-ended strategy. A given respondent was categorized as engaging in one of three types of strategies: feminine only, masculine only, or both feminine and masculine. NOTES ■ 189 ...