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Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes: The Regulation of Female Sexuality during World War II. By Marilyn E. Hegarty. (New York: New York University Press, 2008. xii, 251 pp. $45.00, isbn 978-0-8147-3704-0.)
During World War II, the U.S. military relied on women's services in the war effort in many ways. As the nation mobilized for war, women were called on to serve not only as defense workers, soldiers, and homemakers, but also as United Service Organizations (uso) hostesses, entertainers, and sexually alluring morale builders. Women's sexuality was both mobilized and controlled, as Marilyn E. Hegarty convincingly argues.
The campaign by the army and civilian authorities to fight the spread of venereal disease focused almost exclusively on women as the vectors of contagion. Efforts to repress prostitution soon included so-called promiscuous and potentially promiscuous women, as is exemplified by...