Fallgirls

Ryan Ashley Caldwell is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Soka University of America, USA

'... Caldwell’s book deserves a wide audience... The book highlights the pervasive misuse of gender by an overbearing, male-dominated institution and the social science research that validates it. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries.' Choice 'I will never forget this book. The topic, is of course, frightful, horrific, and memorable. Yet unlike the many attorneys and journalists who have tracked down the Abu Ghraib story, Ryan Ashley Caldwell brings a unique perspective to these materials. Her lens is complex as she brings many perspectives to her topic - human rights and justice, ethics, politics. What is unique is her analysis of gendering and gender. Powerful. Unique. A remarkable contribution.' Judith Blau, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA 'Herein, a searing indictment of noxious assumptions, stereotypes, labels, all at work in the interest of a cover-up. Ryan Caldwell, rotating philosophical, sociological and political insights to the ghastly events at Abu Ghraib, makes it clear that we have been duped as to who is responsible. Will anyone listen?' John J. McDermott, Texas A&M University, USA 'Caldwell's position is clear from the start: she defines herself as a cultural theorist and feminist philosopher. She is also partisan: she was a researcher for the defence, ate meals with the defendants, attended the trials of Lynndie England and Harman, and spoke to numerous attorneys, relatives and friends. However, much of the evidence and arguments she presents are persuasive, and, in an effort to forestall any doubts, she reproduces lengthy transcripts of court testimonies and interviews. The result is a robust condemnation of the treatment of the "seven rotten apples" from a theoretical as well as a pragmatic perspective. Some of it makes disconcerting reading... Fallgirls is a provocative contribution to the debates about Abu Ghraib and US-led torture in the War on Terror... it opens up the debate to some new and exciting ide

• Contents: Preface; Prologue: so what really happened at Abu Ghraib?; Defense Counsel's opening statements; It was not Lucifer achieved: Zimbardo, women and Abu Ghraib; Testimony ofCaptain Donald J. Reese, US Army, Sabrina Harman courts-martial; Abu Ghraib and the 'rationalization' of rationality: uses of the masculine and feminine symbolic narratives; Testimony of Major David DiNenna, US Army, Sabrina Harman courts-martial; The abuse was reported: Parsonian gender roles and Abu Ghraib transfigurations; Evidence: Sabrina Harman's letter to Kelly Bryant; The significance of identity simulacra and gender hyperreality: American military and the case of Abu Ghraib; Testimony of Stjepan G. Mestrovic, expert witness in sociology, Sabrina Harman courts-martial; The fallgirls of Abu Ghraib: feminist analyses and the importance of context; Conversations with Sabrina Harman, summer 2007; Closing statements of the Defense Counsel, Sabrina Harman courts-martial, Captain Patsy Takemura, May 17, 2005, Fort Hood, Texas; Sworn statements; Index.