Women on the frontlines: Rethinking war narratives post 9/11

Abstract

The events of September 11th have triggered the establishment of war narratives, both academic and popular, trying to make sense of this tragedy. However very little discussion in the United States has focused on the gendering of the attack. What we have witnessed is the tendency to masculinize the heroes of the attack as gallant warriors and ignore the contributions of women firefighters, police officers and rescue workers who had also risked their lives. Most importantly the landscape itself was constructed as masculine with the popularity of such cartoons as Our Towering Heroes which likened the images of the World Trade Center to the bodies of a male firefighter and police officer. This paper will analyze the masculination of New York City by way of popular narratives released shortly after the tragedy.