The French Beat: Love, Violence, and Rape of the American Liberation

Paul Fischer

10/10/2017

Professor Zdatny

Word Count: 737

Roberts, Mary Louise. What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France. Chicago and London, The Chicago University Press, 2013.

The French Beat: Love, Violence, and Rape of the American Liberation

There is a gritty progression as What Soldiers Do by Marie Louise Roberts digs into American activities in France during World War II without gloves. Early discussion of “cheesecake” and the mutual sexual identities of the two nations sets a broad foundation for the evidentiary analysis of the host of criminality espoused by prostitution and pimping. This evolves into an extended discussion of how rape helps define the stimulus relationship of libido-driven communications between victor and the liberated. That relationship is a curious one worthy of analysis because while similar to that of the victor and vanquished, there are notable differences.

What the German men had been commissioned to do, the French women did on accident or out of necessity. Droves of informal prostitutes and informally condoned American sexuality meant that by the time of the North African campaign venereal disease had become the most prevalent reason for hospitalization among soldiers (163). A trend had been established, and Roberts sets out to not only explores the causes but also the repercussions of an uncontrolled army in Europe in 1944 and 1945.

In order to create a setting of both national mindsets, the former occupation by Germany in France is historicized. While a tightly regulated prostitution ring and insistence on fellatio played some role in the relatively effective control of venereal disease among German soldiers and the French, it is likely the deportation of two million male POWs and tens of thousands of female prostitutes to labor camps in Germany was equally critical to the “success” of the repressive occupation (146). During the American occupation there is no corollary for these actions, though some individual officers did transfer infected prostitutes to refugee camps out of desperation at times (127).

French MPs provided some regulation but also frequently double timed as pimps, charging access fees to prostitutes, providing little help (180). Communications and pimping are two factors that may explain how the regulation of prostitution of 1941 did not produce problems in American bases such as Hawaii it did in France (184). Perhaps the strongest argument to look the other way for soldiers such as General Gerhardt lay in the homophobia and fear of what was believed to be perversion amongst the ranks without sanctioned outlets (175).

It is likely that the return of POWs created a mindset of intolerance that is shown in demonstrations such as the tonte, in which women who had loved Germans had their head shorn and were marched through the streets. The attitude was also directed at GIs: some French bristled at the sight of some “ex-gangster from Chicago” fornicating with foreign women in public (106). Ameri-Franco relations were complicated by the unique role of liberator, rather than victor. The French mindset was threatened by these factors, but rape played a sensationalist tune to the newly racialized ears of the liberated nation.

Most rape in France was attributed to blacks in the Army. While no distinctions were claimed between white and black soldiers in the US Army other than segregation at the time, these soldiers were also prohibited from combat duty (225). The reports of rape, which occurred in two waves, were frequently unsubstantiated or blatantly false. One official remarked that given the numbers of soldiers deployed in the greatest human movement of mankind the Army did well in control. French racism was not the only culprit; the American military hoped to engender a heterosexual romance that was “corrupted” by rape. Scapegoating black military service members turned out to be a step into a bear trap on the way to the Times Square kiss (257).

There are multiple factors making the sexual break of late-war France phenomenal and unique in nature. Firstly, the American libido had been primed by successful stories of the Expeditionary Force of World War One. Secondly, as French men returned from POW camps a crisis in manhood coupled with prostitution with a shortage of pimps  or rules to accelerate violence, though some women felt less exploited in this way. Finally, the same cold winter that drove the Germans out of Russia in 1944 and ‘45 also drove French women to a degraded status. This triplicate of factors meant that the actuality of a raped nation existed in duality with liberation.