Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in

connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

The heated debate revolving around the word gender and the controversies it generated

since its start in the 1970s quickly traversed the area of academic deliberations entering the

popular culture together with the feminist ideas. However, as Scott reveals in her article, the

notion of gender was used even before the era of modernism denoting the differences in

understanding biological differences between a male and a female1. With time, gender became

synonymous to women, to finally acquire the meaning it is associated with nowadays i.e. the

culturally constructed concept of either feminine or masculine features embracing both the

body and the mind.

As a consequence of the debates focused on sex and gender the whole network of new

processes was discovered which were academically termed gender relations. The novelty of

these processes may seem arguable but the way it was defined was definitely original. Joshua

Goldstein following Raymond Williams, characterizes gender relations as “a process

involving strategies and counter strategies of power”2 thus Goldstein represents the

foucauldian frame of thought which employs the juxtaposition of power and knowledge

relations creating a new paradigm for the modern and post-modern culture.

As a framework for analysis of the culture text mentioned in the topic I am going to

use the theories presented by Nira Yuval-Davis, namely the Primordialist and the Materialst

views concerning nation in relation to gender. These nationalist schools reveal the convictions

of the pre-modern and post modern academia. In her book, Davis several spheres where the

nationalist theories and gender relations intertwine influencing each other. Among these she

includes: biological and cultural reproduction of the nations, the extent to which gender

determines citizenship, and eventually the presence of gender relations in the domain of war

1
1. J.W. Scott, "Gender: A useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review 91, no.
5 (Dec 1986),1055, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1864376 (accessed June 11, 2009).

2
Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 10.

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 Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in
connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

and the military3. In the essay the gendered military will be focused upon together with the

culture the individual is determined by a factor contributing to shaping ones paradigm of

gender relations.

As soon as the clear-cut division between the meanings of sex and gender was

established by American feminist circles the debase that both Davis 4 and J.W. Scott5 refer to

started to pervade the popular media. It seemed visible that gender issues permeated the

American society encoding the hidden meanings into the themes of feature films. The

material I am going to focus on is the movie presenting two main threads in its plot. First is

the encounter of the American Private Adrian Kronauer with the girl from a Vietnamese

village. The other is the militaristic strand in the film, which in the context of gender relations

is apparently constructed around the Primordialist model of men being naturally linked to war

and women perceived as naturally connected to peace6.

Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” (1987) depicts the story of Private

Adrian Kronauer, a new radio presenter who came to Vietnam during the war to upgrade the

American soldiers’ morale7. He arrives to the radio station sponsored by the American

Government. The commanding personnel sees the jokes and the music played by the

newcomer as inappropriate.8 While in Vietnam Kronauer tries to befriend with the Vietnamese

girl called Trinn who comes from the traditional family. Adrian tries to attract the girl under

the false pretences, coming to English class she is attending. Private bribes the officer

3
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 2.
4
Ibid.
5
J.W. Scott, "Gender: A useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review 91, no. 5
(Dec 1986),1055, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1864376 (accessed June 11, 2009).
6
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 97.
7
“Good Morning Vietnam,” The Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093105/
(accessed June 11 2009).
8
Ibid.

2
 Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in
connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

conducting the lesson and presents himself as a new unqualified teacher. His teaching drifts

away from stiff formulaic language from the course books. The soldier, although not without

effort, wins the trust of Tuam – Trinn’s brother. He is the one to mediate between Trinn and

Private Kronauer.

The friendship with Tuam lasts even though he is proved to be the Vietcong member.

Trinn rejects the love of the American soldier justifying her behavior with the tradition of her

country and the divergence of American and Vietnamese cultures. Frustrated by the situation

at the front, the disappointing relationship with Trinn and Tuam, he discloses the information

suspended by the censorship which led to his transfer to the other military location.

Being a story of love, war, and disappointment, it also is a gendered story. The main

characters’ figures mark the complexity of gender relations between two cultures. American

soldier represents the materialist thinking which embraces fraternity as key configuration in

gendered relationships. From the very beginning Kronauer’s tactics in conquering Trinns’s

heart can be described as candid. He accosts the girls on the street of Saigon, offering them an

immediate date, which is inadmissible from their culturally shaped point of view. Kronauer

emphasizes the fraternity and freedom of decisions embraced by the materialist theory using a

trick to meet Trinn at any cost. The girl denies the friendship between Vietnamese women and

any man could ever be permissible in her village. Only when the culture clash occurred did

the American man realize that the relationship is not possible.

The climax of culture shock in the movie comes when finally Tuam arranges the ‘date’

for Trinn and Adrian. Trinn is accompanied by a big group of her family members who are

supposed to be chaperons. The problem for Adrian lies in the complexity of relationships that

are conditioned by gender and kinship ties. During the pre-arranged rendezvous the American

soldier proposed the watching the film at the cinema. The decision had to be consulted with

the uncles and aunts who were responsible for Trinn’s safety and decency. The fact that a

3
 Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in
connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

young lady is not allowed to go on a date alone is a result of Primordialist theory of the nation

and culture taken to the extreme.9 The culture shock depicted in the film is visible in the

reaction of Tuam to the fact that Vietnamese girls are exploited as prostitutes in the

Vietnamese-led bar where American soldiers search for entertainment. Tuam is outraged by

the instrumental treatment of the girls which he stated to Kronauer in the reproachful manner.

As it has been exemplified cultural differences can structure and influence to the extreme the

dynamics of gender relations.

Goldstein finds ‘causality which runs both between war and gender”10. Woman were

always present in the military domain performing a variety of tasks, however their meaning

was distinctly unequal to the male occupations11 as Davis states. As well as that, she lists

gradual professionalization of the Army and women’s actual participation in wars as soldiers,

as the factors contributing to gendering the military. The plot of “Good Morning Vietnam” is

set in 1965, so the times when the majority of occupations in the American Army were male-

dominated.12 Dr. Jakkie Clilliers from the Institute for Security Studies claims: “… women

were restricted to what were often characterized as 'traditional' occupations in the services

such as administrative and medical positions. More general occupations became available to

women in 1977”13. In the film directed by Levinson no depiction of even those traditional

occupations can be found.

Nira Yuval-Davis searches the sources of the low rates of women soldiers in the social

history putting forward the argument that prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies shaped the

9
Nira Yuval-Davis
10
Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 6.
11
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 25.
12
“Gender and Feminism. Developments in the United States,” Institute for Security Studies,
http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/SADR9/Cilliers.html (accessed June 11 2009).
13
Ibid.

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 Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in
connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

naturalization of the occupational divisions during military conflicts14. The early ideas

preconditioned the structure of the army for centuries until the emergence of the feminist

women rights movements. What resulted from the activists’ struggles was the first officially

allowed participation of American women in the battlefield during the Gulf War in 1991 15.

That can be an argument making the lack of women soldier in Levinson’s movie justifiable.

Looking at the Vietnam conflict from the historical point of view one may accord to

the inference from Davis’s book on the image of the men as warriors 16. During the Vietnam

war drafts were conducted in the climate of high-spirited propaganda aimed at glorification of

those males who decide to fight. The reason for such policy was quieting the fear of death in

the battlefield. Those who became soldiers fitted into the frame of “men tough under fire” 17.

Such could have been the premises of the analyzed film creators while they decided not to

include women soldiers in the in production.

To conclude the discussion of the gendered military as presented in “Good Morning

Vietnam” one may use the generalization derived by Goldstein who perceives the general

culturally established gender roles as a key to wartime occupations of both sexes18. Women

tasks in the army seem to be the product of those who classify fighting as typical of men

explaining this by the physical and psychological feebleness which decide about female

unsuitability to combat. Having been a relatively new as a concept, gender relations

preoccupy humanity for several decades. It has been proved that there is a mutual influence

between the cultural background one represents and the understanding of gender relations.

Some aspects of gender relations are particularly deeply shaped by the cultural values.
14
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 93.
15
“Gender and Feminism. Developments in the United States,” Institute for Security Studies,
http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/SADR9/Cilliers.html (accessed June 11 2009).
16
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 10.
17
Ibid.
18
Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 6.

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 Gender roles and relations in as depicted in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning Vietnam” in
connection with the theories presented in Nira Yuval-Davis’s text “Theorizing gender and nation”.
D 149 Anna Habot

Women have long been thought of as those naturally positioned at home, in the “state

of nature” considered inferior to the public sphere associated with high culture.19 Only

recently with the advent of the feminist struggles the Primordialist theory where women were

considered inferior to men was replaced or mixed with the modern ideas of Materialists. In

the movie directed by Barry Levinson all of the above could be traced, as it has been

described in this essay.

Bibliography:

Gender and Feminism. Development in the United States.” Institute for Security Studies.

http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/SADR9/Cilliers.html (accessed June 11, 2006).

Goldstein Joshua, War and Gender (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

“Good Morning Vietnam.” The Internet Movie Database.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093105/ (accessed June 11, 2006).

Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," The American Historical

Review 91, no. 5 (December, 2006, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1864376 (accessed

June 11, 2009).

Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997).

19
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997), 5.