{"id":41438,"date":"2011-11-04T09:41:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T14:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41438"},"modified":"2017-09-17T14:25:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T19:25:28","slug":"kisses-for-the-troops-gendering-homefront-war-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/11\/04\/kisses-for-the-troops-gendering-homefront-war-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Kisses for the Troops: Gendering Homefront War Support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Homefront war support is a critical part of war; care packages, letters, emails, and phone calls greatly increase troop morale. Typically homefront war support is gendered. In the U.S., women are usually the ones at home providing support to the men serving. During various wars the military has encouraged women to support male troops. It\u2019s patriotic, as this WWII poster notes:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/milposter.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41439\" title=\"milposter\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/milposter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"358\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have altered our images of the gendered make up of the homefront and warfront. Today 16% of the military is female, and even though women are not officially allowed in combat positions, they are often in combat situations in the current wars, where the lines of combat are blurred. As a result, over 115 women have been killed in combat. We\u2019re still used to seeing these kinds of images:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ZO93Gr7qSL9nuvf0MLIoAA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/508485115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ZO93Gr7qSL9nuvf0MLIoAA',sig:'plh6iSdFIdypgW2Y7waNBM6_bNq0M7Nh7i71qdDpED8=',w:'508px',h:'339px',items:'508485115',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But images such as this are becoming more common:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ZYsCGNf5QzlIGn9833vbDw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/187138883\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ZYsCGNf5QzlIGn9833vbDw',sig:'D7ZUZmW1W9Tp7CdJOvZkGeDhNOIYk0rAABoBXGGUnQ0=',w:'507px',h:'338px',items:'187138883',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But a student of mine brought me the following ad from the most recent issue of <em>Cosmopolitan<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/kisses3.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-41443\" title=\"kisses3\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/kisses3-500x673.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"351\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/kisses3-500x673.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/11\/kisses3-760x1024.jpg 760w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 351px) 100vw, 351px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Main text:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cosmo and Maybelline New York are collecting \u2018kisses\u2019 for our brave armed forces overseas. For each \u2018kiss\u2019 you send, we\u2019ll donate $1 to the USO.* Detach a postcard from the previous page, write a note of thanks with our Color Sensational kiss, add a stamp and drop it in the mail. *Up to $20,000<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So Maybelline has teamed up with the USO (United Service Organization- a private, non-profit organization) to send support, in the form of \u201ckisses,\u201d and up to $20,000, to the troops overseas.<\/p>\n<p>The assumption here is that armed service members are male and need the support of \u201ckisses\u201d from the homefront\u2014a homefront that is comprised of women. The campaign is also an example of heteronormativity (the often unnoticed ways that heterosexuality is normalized and privileged) because it assumes that (men) serving overseas are heterosexual and will want to receive lipstick kisses from (presumably heterosexual) women. While women service members have been more visible during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this campaign reminds me that war is still largely gendered in a heteronormative fashion. The warfront is still thought of as men\u2019s domain, the homefront women\u2019s domain, and war support relies on heterosexual relationships.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Homefront war support is a critical part of war; care packages, letters, emails, and phone calls greatly increase troop morale. Typically homefront war support is gendered. In the U.S., women are usually the ones at home providing support to the men serving. During various wars the military has encouraged women to support male troops. It\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1851,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,309],"class_list":["post-41438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-warmilitary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41438"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71502,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438\/revisions\/71502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}