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The University of North Carolina Press
272 pp., 61/8 x 91/4, 26 illus., 1 table, append., notes, bibl., index
Gender and American Culture
Good Girls, Good Food, Good Fun
The Story of USO Hostesses during World War II
Throughout World War II, when Saturday nights came around, servicemen and hostesses happily forgot the war for a little while as they danced together in USO clubs, which served as havens of stability in a time of social, moral, and geographic upheaval. Meghan Winchell demonstrates that in addition to boosting soldier morale, the USO acted as an architect of the gender roles and sexual codes that shaped the "greatest generation."
Combining archival research with extensive firsthand accounts from among the hundreds of thousands of female USO volunteers, Winchell shows how the organization both reflected and shaped 1940s American society at large. The USO had hoped that respectable feminine companionship would limit venereal disease rates in the military. To that end, Winchell explains, USO recruitment practices characterized white middle-class women as sexually respectable, thus implying that the sexual behavior of working-class women and women of color was suspicious. In response, women of color sought to redefine the USO's definition of beauty and respectability, challenging the USO's vision of a home front that was free of racial, gender, and sexual conflict.
Despite clashes over class and racial ideologies of sex and respectability, Winchell finds that most hostesses benefited from the USO's chaste image. In exploring the USO's treatment of female volunteers, Winchell not only brings the hostesses' stories to light but also supplies a crucial missing piece for understanding the complex ways in which the war both destabilized and restored certain versions of social order.
"Details with humor and insight a generally unreported segment of feminine history. It's crucial reading for anyone wanting to understand 20th-century feminist issues and yet it delivers emotional justice to the thousands of women who just wanted to 'do their bit' for the boys at war."
--Lincoln-Journal Star
"In constructing a portrait of wartime sexuality through the lens of the USO's American ideal of women, Winchell highlights what she views as the USO's middle-class prejudices. But she also offers studies of leadership in minority women's lobbying for such issues as canteen integration and access for women soldiers."
--Publishers Weekly
"A must-read for anyone interested in the home front during World War II."
--Archways
"Meghan Winchell has written an engaging account of the young and middle-aged women who provided a home away from home for soldiers during World War II. She takes full measure of tensions surrounding gender, race, and class during the social upheavals of the war years."--Susan M. Hartmann, Ohio State University
"Winchell demonstrates how the USO counterbalanced and undermined the new image of Rosie the Riveter by re-inscribing traditional roles for women and white middle-class social norms. Well written and well presented, Good Girls, Good Food, Good Fun should be welcomed by both academic and nonacademic readers."
--Maureen Honey, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, author of Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II
Cloth: $30.00
© 2009 The University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
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