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.
