The Women of Full Metal Jacket

In Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", it is difficult to determine the role that women play simply because of the glaring lack of female characters. In total, only three women actually appear in the movie, and two of those are prostitutes; the third isn't revealed as a woman until the final 10 minutes of the film, and none of them are given names. In fact, until the sniper's gender is revealed, women only play a role as objects for the soldiers' amusement. In all interactions between the genders, it is obvious that the male soldiers always hold complete power over the women, able to bargain their "services" down to a paltry five dollars per soldier. For one of the prostitutes, a soldier even effectively acts as her pimp, determining whom she services and for how much.…