Beyond G.I. Jane: A Look at the representation and Portrayal of Women Armed Service Members in Modern Military Films

In the United States, the topic of women in the military has garnered a lot of attention in recent years. Issues concerning discrimination and roles of women in the military, as well as problems involving the sexual harassment and assault of women, have been at the center of the discussions. There are also still debates (both in and out of the military) about whether women should be in the military at all, as many still believe that women should not be able to enlist, or at least not participate as combatants (Michaels 2013; Associated Press 2012). Nonetheless, as of 2013, 14% of the active military personnel were women (Harris 2013), and with continued focus on challenging the inequalities faced by women in the military, that number will probably continue to grow. Relatedly, women soldiers have been showing up in the media more and more in the past couple of decades-in the news, in television, and in films. In fact, there have been some films, such as G.I. Jane, that focus specifically on exploring the idea of women soldiers. My study examines the representation of women soldiers in modern military films. I conducted a textual analysis on a random selection of fictional films that were released from 1993-2013. I used frame analysis from feminist and gender studies perspectives in order to understand my data. I found that, while there were some exceptions, overall such films tend to conceive of soldiers as straight white men.