GENDER AND THE HOMOEROTIC LOGIC OF TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB A Dissertation by ...

238 Pages·2007·1.17 MB·English

GENDER AND THE HOMOEROTIC LOGIC OF TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

A Dissertation
by
RYAN ASHLEY CALDWELL

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

August 2007

Major Subject: Sociology
GENDER AND THE HOMOEROTIC LOGIC OF TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

A Dissertation
by
RYAN ASHLEY CALDWELL

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Approved by:

Chair of Committee, Stjepan G. Mestrovic
Committee Members, Don E. Albrecht
William A. McIntosh
John J. McDermott
Head of Department, Mark Fossett

August 2007

Major Subject: Sociology
iii

ABSTRACT

Gender and the Homoerotic Logic of Torture at Abu Ghraib.
(August 2007)
Ryan Ashley Caldwell, B.A., Austin College;
M.A., Texas Tech University
Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Stjepan G. Mestrovic

The focus of this dissertation is a social and cultural theoretical analysis of the
empirical data regarding the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by
American forces. I provide the following: an examination of the photographs of abuse
that were leaked to the press in the fall of 2003; an analysis of both Lynndie England’s
and Sabrina Harman’s courts-martial (two of the “rotten apples”); a discussion of the
body associated with punishment and torture, and also as marked in ways of
identification; and an assessment of additional representations regarding prisoner abuse
at Abu Ghraib. Throughout this analysis, I use gender as a lens to understand Abu
Ghraib and the subsequent courts-martial. It is important to note that I gained access to
and was intimately involved as a graduate researcher for Dr. Stjepan G. Mestrovic, an
expert for the defense, and experienced the events of the trials themselves, first-hand and
during closed counsel and open session.
The empirical data provided is drawn primarily from first-hand qualitative
research that involved participant-observation of two trials, interaction with soldiers and
iv
officers, and analysis of both documents pertaining to the trial as well as the photographs
of abuse themselves, among other things. I incorporate cultural studies, feminist and
sociological theory (modern and postmodern), and feminist philosophy so as to provide a
theoretical analysis of the abuse at Abu Ghraib and the subsequent courts-martial
focused on gender and sexuality.
The result of this dissertation is a social and cultural theoretical analysis of the
empirical data regarding the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by
American forces, where women, gender, and sexuality are shown to be important criteria
for examination. Specifically, the results of this project highlight areas that current
analyses of the abuse at Abu Ghraib have left out: how women fit into American
military politics, how gender functions as power within the military, how gender is
socially constructed in the military in terms of heterosexuality, and how both gender and
sexuality are used as weapons by the American military. This kind of examination is
useful in future policy considerations for the military and for detainee treatment, where
analyses of women, gender, sexuality, and power have been so far neglected in any
serious way, and even by sociologists Phillip Zimbardo and the application of his
Stanford Prison Study to the events of Abu Ghraib.
v
DEDICATION

The following project is dedicated to my family and friends who have helped me
lovingly realize my dream imagined, and to my mentor Dr. Stjepan Mestrovic for his
tireless advising and friendship.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Deep thanks are due to my family and friends for the emotional support needed to
complete this manuscript. I could not have finished this without all of you. I would especially
like to thank my mother, Lynn Slaughter, for her unwavering belief and confidence in me, and
for the always free room and board. Also, many thanks to my father, William Caldwell, and to
my brother and his wife, Thomas and Emily Caldwell, for having faith in me and my project.
Tom Slaughter, thanks for all of your encouragement and also for putting up with my many pets
and their perpetual “gifts.” Additionally, I would like to thank Don Albrecht, Alex McIntosh,
John McDermott and especially Stjepan Mestrovic. In the future, I can only hope to be the kind
of professor that these gentlemen demonstrated through their interactions with me. Mestrovic
and McDermott, I am so honored that you were a part of this process and your fingerprints are
all over my writing, theorizing, and professional work. Keith Kerr, I thank you deeply for your
friendship and your camaraderie. I would also like to recognize my many mentors along the
way: Rod Steward, Mark Hebert, Karann Durland, Alice Sowaal, Mark Webb, Ed Averill, and
Joseph Ransdell. Many thanks to Tony Carroll for helping me keep my mind and wits about me
and to RZA for dealing with the previous when they were a mess.
This dissertation is presented in memory of Jean Baudrillard, with whom I had always
hoped to work with before his untimely passing. Unfortunately, I have only experienced a
taped-version of one of Baudrillard’s lectures, and in typical postmodern fashion given the poor
production of the video, there were no visual images and only barely audible sound.
Finally, many thanks to my beloved pets for keeping me company during the past 15
years of my formal education, curled up at my feet, always cheering me on and providing
companionship with their presence, both seen and unseen.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................
iii
DEDICATION...................................................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................ix
1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1
2. IT WAS NOT LUCIFER ACHIEVED: ZIMBARDO, WOMEN, AND ABU
GHRAIB.......................................................................................................................19
2.1 Zimbardo’s Prison Study..................................................................................21
2.2 Milgram and the Absence of Authority Figures...............................................25
2.3 Back to Zimbardo and Abu Ghraib..................................................................36
2.4 Cultural Code of Masculinity...........................................................................39
3. GENDER, POWER, AND THE “RATIONALIZATION” OF RATIONALITY:
USES OF THE MASCULINE AND FEMININE SYMBOLIC NARRATIVES.......53
3.1 The Enlightenment Project and Rationality.....................................................54
3.2 The Prison: Abu Ghraib...................................................................................57
3.3 Foucault and Power..........................................................................................68
3.4 Durkheim..........................................................................................................83
3.5 Moving Beyond Foucault’s Continuum of Punishment and Cruelty...............86
3.6 The “Rationalization” of Rationality................................................................90
4. ABU GHRAIB, PARSONIAN GENDER ROLES, AND COURTS-
MARTIAL EXPERIENCES........................................................................................94
4.1 Instrumental and Expressive............................................................................95
4.2 Meeting With the Defense Attorney: September 21, 2005, The Trial of
Lynndie England .............................................................................................99
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Page

4.3 Instrumental Responsibility: September 22, 2005, Courts-Martial of
Lynndie England............................................................................................105
4.4 Expert Witnesses: Instrumental Help to the Rescue, September 27, 2005,
Courts-Martial of Lynndie England...............................................................110
4.5 Expressive Harman and Instrumental Crimes, May 16, 2005, Courts-
Martial of Sabrina Harman.............................................................................114
4.6 Gilligan and the Pyramid: Instrumental and Expressive Torture...................124
5. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IDENTITY SIMULACRA AND GENDER
HYPERREALITY: AMERICAN MILITARY AND THE CASE OF ABU
GHRAIB.....................................................................................................................134
5.1 Identity and Signification as Hyperreal Simulacra: Maps and the
“Metrosexual Soldier”...................................................................................139
5.2 “Power-Simulacra” and Gender Categories...................................................146
5.3 Seduction and Drag........................................................................................152
5.4 The Simulacra of Gender at Abu Ghraib and the Courts-Martial..................160
6. REPRESENTATIONS OF ABU GHRAIB AND IMAGES OF POWER IN
RELATION TO GENDER........................................................................................173
6.1 Botero’s Abu Ghraib......................................................................................174
6.2 Botero and the Suffering of Women..............................................................183
6.3 Interpretations of Abu Ghraib Images............................................................193
6.4 Fashionable Torture and the “Use-Value” of Women...................................198
7. CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................208
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................213
VITA..............................................................................................................................228
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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE Page
1 YMCA (wall), Ft. Hood, TX (Caldwell, 2005).......................................... 41

2 YMCA (window), Ft. Hood, TX (Caldwell, 2005).................................... 41

3 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Panties on Head”
(http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444)........................................... 68

4 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Fear of Dogs” …………….......................................... 69

5 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Fear of Dogs 2” …………........................................... 70

6 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Detainee Mental Abuse”…........................................... 81

7 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Simulacra of Abuse”………......................................... 82

8 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Rapeist”…………………............................................. 83

9 Abu Ghraib Prison, “Sabrina Harman smiling over the body of
Manadel Al Jamadi (Tentatively identified as of May 20, 2004).............. 88

10 Harman Tattoo, “Rotten Apple 6”.............................................................. 170
11 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #43, (Botero 2005, #43)……………… 176

12 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #56, (Botero 2005, #56)................. 177
13 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #56b, (Botero 2005, #56b)............. 177
14 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #43b, (Botero 2005, #43b)............. 178
15 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” “bra and panties,” (Botero 2005)... 179
16 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” “sodomy,” (Botero 2005)............... 181
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FIGURE Page
17 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #6, (Botero 2004, #6)……………. 181

18 Images from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” #46, (Botero 2005, #46)………….. 181

19 Lynndie England Leash Photograph.......................................................... 189
20 11:01 p.m., Nov. 4, 2003. Detainee with bag over head, standing on
box with wires attached.............................................................................. 193

21 12:38 a.m., Oct. 18, 2003. Detainee cuffed to the entrance of the wing.
Photo taken from the second tier, Abu Ghraib…………………................. 194

22 Image from Botero’s “Abu Ghraib,” second analysis of
“bra and panties”, (Botero 2005)................................................................ 194

23 Photograph #1 by Antonin Kratochvil in his collection entitled
“A Homage to Abu Ghraib”……………………………………………… 196

24 Photograph #2 by Antonin Kratochvil in his collection entitled
“A Homage to Abu Ghraib”………………………………………………. 197

25 The photo-essay "State of Emergency" (#1) by Steven Meisel,
September '06 issue of Vogue Italia........................................................... 199

26 The photo-essay "State of Emergency" (#2) by Steven Meisel,
September '06 issue of Vogue Italia........................................................... 200