My historical research aims to achieve an understanding on how U.S. soldiers in France depicted French women in their weekly periodicals, printed during a period in which thousands of women faced shame and hair sheering, following the country’s liberation on August 25th, 1944 from Nazi Germany. My research, therefore, attempts to answer this main question: How did military periodicals present women in parts of France being liberated following the Nazi Occupation form 1940-1944? This research that I have conducted is important to the historical field as it analyzes how war and the men involved used women as a reward for fighting. By using the press to provide a platform for them to gain their goal, it has created an institution that allows men to believe they have the right to these women and their sexualities, an institution that is still prominent in the 21st century. The conclusion of my findings is that the way French women were depicted in the American media was a specific tool used to help its soldiers achieve the reward of these women’s sexuality that they believed they deserved after years of fighting, a tool that also misdirected the public’s attention away from potentially unsavory events or reports of Allied soldiers and their behavior.
To conduct my research, and to help answer my question, I utilized the Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military periodical, database, American newspapers reporting on France’s liberation and its subsequent societal development, and secondary sources such Shorn Women by Fabrice Virgili. The process of researching and developing my argument has allowed me to gain a better understanding of what will be expected of me in my future career, where I will need to be flexible if my work forces me in another direction unexpectedly and diligent in completing the tasks my employer needs me to complete. This research was rewarding in my ability to create an important historical question, where I was able to use secondary and primary sources to support my argument and form a conclusion, where skills developed from this process will become important tools for me to succeed in my future career.
Author: Gillian Davis
Faculty Advisor: Erik Jensen, History
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