ABSTRACT
As the newest class of trainees in the Navy’s elite SEAL unit convenes on the quad, Navy Master Chief Jack Urgayle in the movie G.I. Jane2 invokes the D.H. Lawrence poem ‘Self-pity’ (1986: 189) as he prepares these soldiers for the hardships they will endure:
The movie depicts the fictional struggle to formally integrate women in the Navy SEAL unit. The word ‘self-pity’, is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as ‘a self-indulgent dwelling on one’s own sorrows or misfortunes.’3 Notably, Master Chief Urgayle continues his memorable welcome address, ‘[t]he ebb and flow of the Atlantic tides, the drift of the continents, the very position of the sun along its ecliptic. These are just a few of the things I control in my world! Is that clear?’ The Master Chief’s remarks reveal vividly his view of the incompatibility of military service and vulnerability. Tellingly, the female candidate endures a brutal assault by the Master Chief, shaves her head, and ceases menstruation as
she proves her SEALs compatibility, suggesting that her femininity itself risked connoting vulnerability in the all-male military unit. This scene reveals the defeatist paradox of women’s military integration whereby hegemonic masculine constructs demand that women occupy perpetual vulnerable, outsider status, yet vulnerability is castigated.
