Abstract

Drawing from a selection of movies, I propose to study some images of men and women in the context of the Vietnam War, taking a closer look at women’s. To some extent, they contribute to revealing how the “field of battle” has become a “field of gender” and what is at stake. The film as a medium is involved in what we may call “war propaganda”: in the movies, there are elements that are part and parcel of what makes the traditional image of men and women in wartime. It is mostly about defining men as visible acting characters on stage and women as secondary characters, playing the part of the apolitical and maternal Other. Indeed, their historical identity mainly defines them as “those who do not make war”. Sometimes, the female image is ambivalent. But the portraits of those who betray their gender, the women warriors and the unfaithful, though proposing new facets, do integrate into gender war propaganda. Occasionally the images showed also reveal new voices and paths. It is true that overall we encounter no heroines but “super-hero soldiers” who rescue women ; however the representations offer a new space, emancipated from historical and social expectations. But do these stories suggest that women’s stories may be war stories and be part of history?