Military Femininities

The book analyzes how discourses of gender and imperialism intersect in and work through autobiographies of the Iraq War. It argues that these texts create a variety of military femininities—gendered and militarized identities that make it possible for female veterans to position themselves as “real” soldiers (and “real” veterans) and thus authenticate and justify the existence of their autobiographies in ways similar to, but also transcending those employed by male veteran authors of war autobiographies.The book further argues that variety of military femininities that emerge in these texts is due to the fact that there is no hegemonic military femininity that is analogous to the hegemonic military masculinity described by Paul Higate or Marcia Kovitz, or Aaron Belkin. Thus, these autobiographies find new ways to claim soldierly identities for female veterans and expand the narrow focus on combat experience that defines the genre to establish what the author calls “deployment experience.” Throughout, the book also shows how these military femininities depend on discourses of (neo-)Imperialism and (neo-)Orientalism.The book is of interest to scholars focused on war literature and the cultural work gender, and imperialism do in the genre.