Lynch and Lynndie

There's always a room for a little pop theory:

"I do think there’s some truth to the feminist thinking that we in the media tend to portray women as either wonderful things or terrible sinners — as angels or whores. It could be that what we’re seeing is the military portrayal of that," says Geneva Overholser, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism. "I’m sure Lynndie England has been oversimplified in that it makes her out to be the epitome of this awful chapter. If we are using these young women to symbolize something, they certainly can’t be said to symbolize those who lead the troops."

In defense of obviousness, it's not much of an analytical leap to describe a woman torturing a man on a leash as having a certain dominant quality about her. Still, fascinating that the dominant female narratives from this war so aptly reflect (or anticipate) public sentiment/Bush's approval ratings. Jane Fonda and Joan Baez played similarly dualistic hermeneutical roles for Vietnam, Rosie the Riveter stood in opposition to those sluts whose loose lips sank our WWII ships, etc.

(Link courtesy of Washington Monthly.)

Posted by Kriston at May 17, 2004 11:49 AM