a critical viewing of G.I. JANE

The 1997 film G.I. JANE poignantly characterizes the binary dynamic that constructs male supremacy in opposition to female inferiority historically and in modern times. Misogyny is so pervasive in culture that the film takes for granted the audience’s understanding of sexism, and begins to unfold under the assumption—not the question of—female insubordination. What is more, the film skillfully interweaves social hierarchies of race and sexuality with sex and gender and implicitly reveals military power as a white, male, heterosexual domain. The basic story line revolves around Lt. Jordon O’Neil, who is reluctantly accepted into Navy SEAL training as a trial case to establish whether or not women can keep up with the “most intensive military training known to man.” The plot unfolds in the most hyper-masculine and elitist of institutions—the United States military—to underscore the deep-seated resentment of the female in “male” space and to dramatize Lieutenant Moore’s transformation from feminine to masculine.

As soon as G.I. JANE begins, it both complicates and confirms traditional ideas of power and politics. The film revolves around the arrangements of Senator Lillian DeHaven, who is able to secure the spot of one female to undergo Navy SEAL training with the understanding that if the trial woman passes, the training will become open to women. The Senator is marked by her strong personality, her tough politics, and her no-bullshit demeanor—culturally hailed as male aggression. Thus, her whiteness and her masculine approach grant her access to power, but at the same time, the audience is constantly reminded that the Senator is a woman. In one scene, she primps her hair in the mirror, while in another she is getting her hair colored. Accordingly, the implications of female political power must be subdued by reminders that she is in fact woman and therefore, never a man. Interestingly, the trope for the Senator’s femaleness—her hair—operates to further dramatize the famous hair-buzzing scene of Lieutenant O’Neil (Demi Moore) and mark her transformation from female to male. Senator DeHaven is also significant because her political impetus to push for female inclusion in training outlines a central theme in sexual socio-politics: only women care about women’s issues. This has deeper implications, namely because women’s issues seen as separate from human rights issues or general concerns of welfare reaffirm women as “others” and “the second sex.”

Though G.I. JANE presents itself as fighting for the rights of women, it is actually only fighting for the rights of specific kinds of women. In this sense, femaleness does not merit equality. It is merely the white, heterosexual, feminine female whose social privilege grants taboo access to male terrain. The audience learns early on in the film that only certain women are acceptable. As the Senator flips through photos of different female candidates to take on the Navy, she remarks that a more muscular and thick woman might need a “chromosome check,” inferring that a real woman looks feminine, and any hint of “male” qualities jeopardizes femaleness. Another picture of a more butch woman evokes the question “Is this what you want on the cover of Newsweek?” The message is clear: appropriate gender is crucial in maintaining femaleness, and for femaleness to ever rise in status, it cannot be tarnished with such unsightly features such a strength and width. Lt. O’Neil’s gender is also underscored as the film opens to mark her as an appropriate candidate for the trial, and also to emphasize her crossing over into maleness as the film progresses. The audience meets O’Neil wearing pearl earrings, a flawless bun, and gentle hues of makeup. When the audience learns at the end of the film that Senator DeHaven never expected or wanted O’Neil to succeed, but rather staged the attempt as a political ploy, DeHaven tells O’Neil that she does not really want the conditions of service, or to have to live in “third-world” countries. Implicit in her statement is the picture of O’Neil has a particular form of feminine that can not be outside in the rugged, but must be protected in appropriate realms of femaleness. In the case of the military, however, female territory can include intelligence operations, where it is suggested O’Neil returns. In this sense, it is not O’Neil’s mind that is degraded, it is specifically her body—her marker of femaleness—that insubordinates her.

Like femininity, the concept of masculinity is also heavily regulated in the film. On the one hand, G.I. JANE would like the viewer to think that the army is for men, but it is actually only for a particular hegemonic version of men. In one scene, the Master Chief calls his trainees “pencil dicks” when they are not performing up to his standards. Embedded within this insult, the audience learns that the military man is only as good as his penis. Men with inappropriately-sized phalluses do not have the goods to prove themselves un-female. This again casts women as the other. A second insult used in the film is “pretty boy.” Although the privileged version of a woman is one who is “feminine” and therefore “pretty”, as soon as this is projected onto a male, he is ridiculed, implicitly labeling him woman and/or gay. The policed dichotomy of male/female is ironic because it allows one idealized form as femaleness, but those same qualities are actually abhorrent when placed on male bodies. In this way, femaleness threatens what it means to be male, and compromises the power of maleness.

As expected in any context heavily infused with themes of gender and sex, sexuality plays a significant role in the film. The audience quickly learns that in the heterosexist landscape of the film, sexual deviance is grounds for ridicule and dismissal. When Senator DeHaven first interviews Lt. O’Neil to take on the trial position, the Senator asks if she “has a man.” She then unabashedly elaborates that if she were not heterosexual, the situation would blow up in their faces. This first dialogue discussing sexuality foreshadows the later twist in the plot where, in order to deal with O’Neil’s success in training, she is framed as a lesbian and dismissed on grounds of inappropriate behavior. While the military’s homophobia can at least be expected in a film seeking to portray its bigotry and exclusionary politics, even O’Neil herself participates in homophobia, angered that Senator DeHaven, who had staged the photos, would dare “smear” her “good name.” The audience learns from this that sexual minorities are an abomination. What is more, after O’Neil makes her transition into maleness, she shifts the power dynamic with her superior in a scene where they are engaged in an intense physical fight by saying “suck my dick.” All of her comrades cheer her on, revealing two factors: primarily, O’Neil now legitimately has a dick, because she has become a man. Secondly, a man sucking another man’s dick is the greatest insult.

Aside from sexuality, film visits the idea of race by talking about it, and by not talking about it. A fellow black trainee in the Navy SEAL training explains, in defense of O’Neil, that his grandfather could not serve to protect his country in WWII because of the color of his skin. He then tells O’Neil that she is the “new nigger on the block.” The comparison of black and female exclusion bears historical relevance, as abolitionism and first wave of feminism existed contemporaneously and fed off one another. It was also African American males who won the ballot before women, and who similarly had access to the Navy before women. This recognition of the civil rights movement is all well and good, but at the same time, G.I. Jane features a limited handful of token black characters, and portrays no other minority. It is basically a landscape of whiteness that, despite its recognition of minority oppression, still remains a hegemonic microcosm of race.

Viewed in harmony, the complexities of sex, gender, sexuality and race unfold in this movie to highlight O’Neil’s transition from a white, straight, female to a white, straight man. She first arrives at her training with her hair in a bun, placed in separate quarters, and training as an “other.” Her frustrations culminate to a point of intolerance, where she demands equal treatment. It is at this moment the audience sees her shaving her head, doing one-armed push ups, and sharing space with males. While in the beginning, the other men were uncomfortable by her tampons, later the audience watches as the doctor explains amenorrhea. While early on in the film, the audience understands white, male military power through the phallic cigar-smoking of anyone in uniform, by the time O’Neil is dismissed for being too successful, and thus too masculine, she too smokes a cigar on the patio. Accordingly, this is a film about privilege—who has it, who does not, and why. G.I. JANE presents itself as a film about men and women, but it is really about white, heteronormative men and women. It is a particular version of maleness that has the privilege and power of the United States military, and only a particular version of femaleness can dare take on a phallus and win inclusion.