Camp All-american, Hanoi Jane, And The High-and-tight: Gender, Folklore, And Changing Military Culture

From the mythic rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch to the high-profile trial of Lynndie England, the war in Iraq has highlighted women’s presence within the military as never before. Carol Burke, a folklorist who taught as a civilian professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, for seven years, analyzes the military as an occupational folk group, arguing that every detail of military culture—from the “high-and-tight” haircut to the chants sung in basic training—is laden with significance.

Exploring the minute ways that “the cult of masculinity” persists in all branches of the United States military today, Burke unearths fascinating details and offers eye-opening anecdotes about basic training, military dress and speech, the history of the marching chant, the disdain some veterans still harbor for Jane Fonda, and the colorful—and sometimes questionable—rituals of military manhood.

Postulating that culture is made—not born—Burke urges the military to consciously change its policy of “gendered apartheid” so it can evolve into the gender-, race-, and sexuality-neutral democratic institution it needs to be.

Carol Burke is associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Irvine. The author of five books, her work as a folklorist ranges from explorations of the folk life of rural Midwestern families to the penal system to the modern military. She lives in Irvine, California.