Between Zero Dark Thirty and Camp X-Ray: Changing Gender Dynamics of Contemporary American War Film

Abstract

War films play a substantial role in American society by cultivating an understanding of military politics. I argue that the use of different narrative strategies encouraging spectator identification within the US American war films establishes the political backbone of the genre. This paper concentrates on the transformation of the genre’s conventional gender representation in connection with American military politics. After providing a brief history of female integration into the US military, it offers a comparative analysis of Zero Dark Thirty“ (2012) and Camp X-Ray“ (2014).

Keywords

• 2nd Wave Feminism
• Identity Politics
• Militarism
• Neoliberalism
• Politics
• Spectatorship