Alternatives 30 (2005), 25–53 The Scripting of Private Jessica Lynch: Biopolitics, Gender, and the “Feminization” of the U.S. Military Véronique Pin-Fat and Maria Stern* Supplementing the insights of Georgio Agamben with feminist research contributions, this article develops a biopolitical reading of the debate surrounding the “feminization” of the U.S. military. We argue that an examination of the role gender plays in myths of sacrifice reveals that the military is already fully “feminized.” Crit- ical engagement with the scripting of Jessica Lynch re-introduces the political to the question of military sacrifice by rendering its impossibility conspicuous. Keywords: Gender, war, politics, iden- tity, U.S. military. I’m an American soldier, too. —U.S. Army Private Jessica D. Lynch Private Jessica D. Lynch 1 became what many have referred to as a “modern American war myth,” an “icon” of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. 2 Her experiences of being captured, held as a prisoner of war, and dramatically rescued from an Iraqi hospital by U.S. Special Operations forces can be read as the scripting of a war hero(ine)- in-the-making. 3 For many in the United States in particular, Lynch became a symbol of the righteousness of the U.S. “War on Terror,” of “American values,” of modern femininity. 4 Oliver North, for example, remarked that “the rescue of Private Lynch is a story from which the critics can learn a lesson. It is a story about the value of life and how the world’s most powerful military employs its extensive resources and risks its most elite forces to save and rescue a single soldier—because they view every life as precious.” 5 25 *Véronique Pin-Fat, Dept. of Government, International Politics and Philosphy (GIPP), Univ. of Manchester, 30 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; e-mail: Veronique. Pin-Fat@man.ac.uk. Maria Stern, Univ. of Gothenburg (PADRIGU), Göteborg, Sweden; e-mail: Maria.Stern@padrigu.gu.se.