What a novel idea: a mouthy female
senator decides to test the U.S. navy’s treatment of women and uses Jordan O’Neil (the
formerly sappy Moore) as her guinea pig. From the start, O’Neil was more of a puppet than
a guinea pig; no one expected her to endure the physically ravaging navy SEALs program
and her sadistic master chief.
Yet, despite many twists and turns, including false allegations that
O’Neil was a lesbian and a harsh beating during a standard combat exercise, she made it.
G.I. Jane is definitely a female empowerment movie, but beneath the grunts
and sweat is the story of the little engine that could. Basically, if you want something
bad enough, says the movie, you’ll get it.
O’Neil learned her lesson the hard way, refusing to be graded differently
than the men and even living and showering with them. However, she was accepted a little
too quickly by her male peers. Working so closely with males in such a demanding,
competitive environment did reap resentment, and harassment. I thought that she was going
to be raped and taunted a lot more because that’s what probably would have happened.
Either way, I was a little dubious about G.I. Jane from the start because of Demi Moore’s iffy track record. Demi has played the woman-object in classics like “Striptease” and “Indecent Proposal”, so I never had any respect for the woman to begin with. The sight of her biceps pumping, though, and her wise cracks to the male chauvinists in her troupe had me shouting her praises. And the much-publicized scene in which she shaves her head gave me chills.
From a feminist perspective, O’Neil submitted herself to a sordid, patriarchal institution would be questionable (or even downright masochistic) in the minds of many women. However, the fact that she had the option to do it is what makes feminism so darn wonderful.
