Challenging and Reinforcing Sexual Vulnerability Discourses among Military

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Workplace Experiences

Abstract

Fear of sexual violence constrains women’s lives in many ways. Underlying that fear are a set of widely shared cultural discourses which define female bodies as inherently vulnerable and male bodies as potentially dangerous, and which suggest that only men are capable of serving as protectors of others.
The risk of sexual violence is particularly high among women in the U.S. military. This article draws on 25 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted during 2012 and 2013 with a non-random sample of women. All participants are current or former U.S. military members who deployed at some point to Iraq or Afghanistan. The article explores the ways in which military experience can both challenge and reinforce women’s belief in these discourses. At a broader level, this article illustrates both the intertwining natures of resistance and accommodation to gender norms as well as the important role that context plays in these processes.

Author

• Rose Weitz, Arizona State University