With a recently released book, a made-for-TV movie, and a very substantial discharge package, Jessica Lynch has become an overnight celebrity.
And of course, the Bush Administration and Pentagon are hyping Lynch like she’s the Second Coming of Vassilli Zaitsev: the bearer of good news from the war front, a much-needed morale-booster, both to troops and skeptics at home. But in the pro-war media, where there’s smoke, there are mirrors.
Jessica Lynch was most likely hand-picked by the Pentagon and Bush administration. She had what it took to be the perfect patriotic poster-girl: she was white, young, and attractive. The American media knows what pretty, white girls mean to Americans, especially when something bad happens to them. Young, attractive, white girls have been symbols of purity, dating back to the 13 colonies. It’s the instinctual fear of beauty and innocence being lost to a godless savage, which has fueled American hate-streaks for centuries.
Whether it’s raising Ku Klux Klan membership or giving the public something to bite their nails over, this mentality may never go away and will continue to be invoked whenever needed.
During the anti-abolition campaigns of the 19th century, streets were lined with posters of charming, petite girls savagely embraced by black men. In the days of Joe McCarthy, American dads were haunted by the specter of Communist “party girls,” or good-girls-gone-bad, who apathetically went to bed with social outcasts and racial minorities for the “good of The Party.”
Now in 2003, we have Jessica Lynch: the all-American girl next-door who found herself at the mercy of dark-skinned savages of the Third World. It’s the perfect cultural drama and, for a few extra bucks during sweeps week, it made for great titillation on prime time television.
Americans were left on the edge of their seats, as the Pentagon, in a display of this-is-where-your-tax-dollars-go chivalry, swept up Jessica from an abandoned hospital, in an unnecessary, over-hyped, and over-Hollywood-ed rescue operation.
In the months to follow, the issue is left to simmer for ignorant rumors to spread like SARS. And then, showing no respect for the facts, Jessica’s story was recklessly hyped into absurdity by the mainstream media and especially, the government. Apparently, Lynch was shot, stabbed, slapped, raped, and any other Rasputin-like method that could be sold to gossip-loving Americans.
All these rumors, however, are now being denied, disputed, or debunked. Doctors denied that she was shot or stabbed, Lynch claims that she was never slapped, and nobody could find any evidence that she was raped. However, the papers had no problem reporting it as if it were entirely factual.
Even the story of her rescue was dramatized. The Iraqi lawyer that told coalition forces where she was, started telling stories of dramatic Kung Fu fights with Saddam loyalists during his escape. (His wife claims that he watches too many John Wayne movies.) Even Lynch herself has claimed that the story of her daring (and conveniently videotaped) rescue is hammed-up. She was even upset at the fact that they brought a camera in the first place. In fact, her side of the story is more consistent with a recent BBC story that US soldiers had at first refused to take her back, even firing on her ambulance when Iraqi doctors tried to return her.
Furthermore, last week, in a display of absolute integrity, Jessica came clean with the fact that Bush, the Pentagon, and the media are shamelessly hyping her story for propaganda. She has also come out as saying that she is hurt that the military has fabricated most of her story and “it was wrong” that she be used as a patriotic symbol.
It doesn’t really matter at this point, however, because the hawks in Washington got what they wanted. Animosity was successfully generated against the enemy. They knew that the image of a scared little white girl in the hands of faceless dark-skinned “savages” would stir public sentiment. Why do you think they’re pushing the rape allegation down our throats? Because, it’s a fact that interracial rapes with white victims stir up more outrage than any other form of rape, among Americans.
Never mind the spectrum of racial diversity among the heroes and POWs of the coalition. Who’s interested in Native Americans, single mothers, Black women or, (gasp) Mexicans? Can you seriously imagine the image of a black woman in captivity stirring much public outrage? No. In fact, there was a black woman in captivity and outside of her family and friends, nobody could care less.
There were plenty of faces that they could have used, if they wanted to describe heroism, but none of them were young, white, or pretty enough. Shoshana Johnson, a wounded, black captive, will be getting only one third of the discharge package that Lynch will be getting. The conditions of her captivity were degrading and demoralizing. (It’s against the law to film POWs for public morale.) Lori Piestewa, a Native American single mother of two had fought to the death at Lynch’s side. The media didn’t even give her a proper obituary.
The hawks wagered some of their last shreds of credibility on the hope that Jessica’s amnesia would last forever. They tried to promote Jessica’s story because, frankly, there were no other pretty, white faces that could shift public sentiment.
Now that Lynch has reclaimed her dignity, I simply wonder how long will it be before they dump her like a psychotic girlfriend. Not, I think, until another report of a pretty white damsel in distress comes across the Pentagon desks. Minorities and American propaganda never mix.
Mark Ostroff is a Collegian columnist.
