African American Women

Military scholars have devoted countless hours studying the implications of the war on generals, allied soldiers, and Nazi Germany, but, much of this research has not since covered the effects war has had on European women—until the notion of gender relations arose. When scholars began to question the whereabouts of females, studies commenced in order to understand how American intervention and occupation in European counties impacted women. As a result, scholars like Mary Louise Roberts focused on the relationship between American GI’s and females. What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France the romance, accusations of rape, racism, and prostitution amongst the American GI’s and French females.
June 6, 1944, a day which
Roberts’ introduces police records that highlight the careless actions committed by American GI’s—rape being one of them. Although most of the rape cases conducted by the American GI’s, the blame was placed on the wrong American soldier. Racism accompanied the American forces from the United States and diffused throughout France, and was used to target the African American GI’s. The combination of American and French racism created a deadly weapon which was used to combat the African Americans—Race loomed over the heads of the soldiers and the common French females. French prostitutes would claim they were raped by an African American soldier, but, it was done at night, with little to no lighting. How could the French women identify their rapist if there was no light? Although the African American soldiers were fighting for the allies—and a nation which still stigmatized them—the white American soldiers became allies with the French women when it pertained to race. In the same way French women were sexualized, African American soldiers endured the same
Jennifer G Mathers, a professor at Aberystwyth University, proclaimed Roberts set women as the center of her research, but, Roberts rarely provides sources to bolster the female aspect of her research. Additionally, Jennifer G. Mathers states “halfway through the book do the voices of French women emerge to challenge the US soldier’s assumptions that the women were selling themselves purely by choice”. Mary Louise Roberts never claimed there remained a lack of sources surrounding the French women’s opinions, which caused there to be an immense focus on the American GI presence within France, rather than the implications the American GI’s had on French women, the French society, and race. Although there was a lack of sources revolving around the French female opinion, Mary Louise Roberts created a view for the reader to understand the mindset of the American GI’s and how that mindset impacted the relations in France. But, the lack of coverage on one of the most prominent topics of her research caused scholar Maury Klein, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, to proclaim Roberts’s book was a conglomeration of over-generalizations and over-interpretations of the diaries and letters Roberts used as her primary sources. Overall, What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France presented a more