I think a more convincing explanation for this sort of vigilante violence toward women, however, lies in the rapidly changing roles of women over the course of the 1920s-40s, and the unfamiliarity of these newly established gender roles to the returning German soldiers. Not only had women filled new jobs and roles in society in the absence of Germany's men during World War Two; studies also showed that the Post-war German woman was in fact more assertive and self-reliant than their male counterparts. The insecurities of the returning soldiers (especially in the presence of healthy soldiers from the world's richest country) led to a widespread distrust and resentment of women - German men tried to push women out of their jobs, accused them of "deserving" rape, and even beat them or forcibly cut their hair as punishment for their sexual and social "transgressions". I realize that the American soldiers occupying Germany were in a position of power over the German men, but I'm surprised that more of the latter's aggression wasn't taken out on the former. What did German men have to gain in so alienating their fellow female citizens?
Monday, November 16, 2009
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Perhaps I'm naive, or my previous education regarding post World War Two Germany was incomplete, but until last week I was completely unaware of the anti-fraternization movement, much less that the rape of German women by American soldiers was a widespread problem. The degree to which German society went to punish those women who "fraternized" with American soldiers (beatings, hair-cutting) was appalling; as Biddiscome points out, it's easy to evoke feminist rhetoric and characterize such behavior as the objectification and perceived ownership of women, especially when placed alongside the metaphor of women taken by the American troops as the spoils of war.
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Not at all, quite clear. I agree that it would be a mistake to blame "natural" consequences, hence the Biddiscombe quote. The changing female role is definately more relevant. What does a man do when faced with his own misery/insecurity and a "more assertive" female? In Nazi Germany, resort to the basest male brutality/barbarity- rape rhetoric. This is a phenomenon that unfortunately transcends the post-Nazi spacetime...
ReplyDeleteYou are correct to point out the changing roles of women and how these likely impacted the abiliuty of German men to cope with the changed conditions at the end of the war. As far as taking out their agressions on Allied soldiers, such actions would face swift and certain reprisals by the American, British or French military while reprisals against women falls under the category of domestic disputes and does reinforce those older, traditional notions of patriarchal control over the family. Violence against an American soldier would certainly be punished but German men could certainly argue that they had the 'right' to discipline their wives, daughters, sisters, nieces, etc.
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