not quite a fashion model, but a gendered image nonetheless...
This image was taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004. It can be found across the Internet and in various news sources, particularly at the time it was taken, although it is still used by people speaking out about the issues surrounding it. The picture is blurry, taken inside the prison. It was taken by another soldier and presumably not meant to be shared the way it was. When they were exposed, the pictures taken shocked the world, because of the (literally) naked cruelty and violence involved and in part because the fact that women were centrally involved contradicted popular ideas about women as delicate, non-violent creatures.
The context, content, form, and narratives of this picture are shaped by war, unequal power structures, and the cultures of the people involved. The image is very much gendered and sexualized, but not along traditional lines; it is about power and oppression. The female soldier, clothed in her uniform and standing, is framed by the prison walls as the subject of the picture. She is in the center of the picture in the position of power, looking without expression or emotion at the naked male prisoner, who is lying prone and obviously in pain at the side of the picture. His body is cut off from the picture; he is the object of her gaze. She is holding a leash, “walking” the naked man like a dog in order to dehumanize and humiliate him. This tactic is particularly humiliating for the prisoner because of Muslim cultural and religious beliefs about nudity, bodies, and gender. The image is also (more traditionally) shaped along racial lines, with the white woman in control over the brown man. The way that the soldiers treat the prisoners as less than human recalls slavery, colonialism, and genocide, and reminds us that these are not easily dismissed as relics of the past.
The picture tells a story of white American soldiers dehumanizing and torturing Iraqi prisoners, showing us some of the horrors of war and proving that racism, power and oppression can and do cross gender lines.
Comments
What a bunch of tripe. The "man" on the floor is a murderer and should have been put down like a bad dog instead of taken out for a walk.
If he were a real man, he wouldn't be laying on the floor whining like a pussy, he would be up fighting. He wouldn't stone a woman to death for being raped, he wouldn't subject a woman to the indignities of Islam, he wouldn't celebrate the cowardice of homicide/suicide bombing against women and children.
I see nothing but a loser woman taking a sub-human out for a walk. And I read noting but typical lefty whining.
Edwards, the champion of the wuss vote, is out, so you will have to vote for Obama instead.
Posted by: Nose | March 8, 2008 10:05 PM
What a bunch of tripe. The "man" on the floor is a murderer and should have been put down like a bad dog instead of taken out for a walk.
If he were a real man, he wouldn't be laying on the floor whining like a pussy, he would be up fighting. He wouldn't stone a woman to death for being raped, he wouldn't subject a woman to the indignities of Islam, he wouldn't celebrate the cowardice of homicide/suicide bombing against women and children.
I see nothing but a loser woman taking a sub-human out for a walk. And I read noting but typical lefty whining.
Edwards, the champion of the wuss vote, is out, so you will have to vote for Obama instead.
Posted by: Nose | March 8, 2008 10:09 PM