Abstract

This article considers how venereal disease campaigns during World War II offered a warrant through public health discourse for the mass incarceration of American women in an era of shifting gender expectations. During the war years, at least 30,000 American women detained without documentation were held in domestic quarantine camps under suspicion of transmitting venereal diseases to unsuspecting soldiers and thereby undermining the war effort. Analyzing public health campaign posters from this period, I argue that the U.S. government achieved the rhetorical transformation of allegedly promiscuous white women into state enemies through visual tropes of the “public woman.” The conclusion considers how analyzing less prevalent detainment discourses, such as those embedded in public health, may aid in understanding contemporary detainment issues.

摘要

本文考虑了二战期间的性病运动如何通过公共卫生话语为在性别期望不断变化的时代大规模监禁美国妇女提供了保证。在战争年代，至少有 30,000 名没有证件被拘留的美国妇女因涉嫌将性病传染给毫无戒心的士兵从而破坏战争努力而被关押在国内隔离营中。分析这一时期的公共卫生运动海报，我认为美国政府通过“公共女性”的视觉比喻实现了将据称滥交的白人女性转变为国家敌人的修辞转变。结论考虑了分析不太流行的拘留话语，例如那些嵌入在公共卫生中的话语，如何有助于理解当代的拘留问题。