Throughout World War II, when Saturday nights came around,
servicemen and hostesses happily forgot the war for a little while
as they danced together in USO clubs, which served as havens of
stability in a time of social, moral, and geographic upheaval.
Meghan Winchell demonstrates that in addition to boosting soldier
morale, the USO acted as an architect of the gender roles and
sexual codes that shaped the "greatest generation."
Combining archival research with extensive firsthand accounts from
among the hundreds of thousands of female USO volunteers, Winchell
shows how the organization both reflected and shaped 1940s American
society at large. The USO had hoped that respectable feminine
companionship would limit venereal disease rates in the military.
To that end, Winchell explains, USO recruitment practices
characterized white middle-class women as sexually respectable,
thus implying that the sexual behavior of working-class women and
women of color was suspicious. In response, women of color sought
to redefine the USO's definition of beauty and respectability,
challenging the USO's vision of a home front that was free of
racial, gender, and sexual conflict.
Despite clashes over class and racial ideologies of sex and
respectability, Winchell finds that most hostesses benefited from
the USO's chaste image. In exploring the USO's treatment of female
volunteers, Winchell not only brings the hostesses' stories to
light but also supplies a crucial missing piece for understanding
the complex ways in which the war both destabilized and restored
certain versions of social order.