Key Theme 2 - Changing Gender Norms and Sexuality

Question 1

Outline pre-war attitudes towards gender and sexuality

Answer 1

• patriarchal society
• homosexuality was illegal and had been linked explicitly by the MP Pemberton Billing to the degeneracy of British masculinity
• men were expected to conform to the ‘masculine’ ideal of being strong, heroic, brave, powerful, dominant; thus war was considered one of the manliest of activities
• women were expected to be ‘feminine’, that is, demure, gentle, nurturing, submissive, and powerless
• pre-war, women were expected to care for her husband and family, whereas men were expected to work and support their family economically

Question 2

Define masculinity and emasculation

Answer 2

Masculinity = roles, qualities traditionally associated with men
Emasculation = to be deprived of one's masculine characteristics and identity

Question 3

How did gender roles and attitudes towards sexuality shift during the war?

Answer 3

• when men went to war, women were left to fill their roles and when men returned, some of these roles were longer just for men
• sexual and social expectations still placed on women in spite of the freedoms they obtained and only some women were able to/brave enough to embrace their newfound freedom
• antipathy towards homosexuality intensified

Question 4

Explain how the war affected women’s lives and roles in society

Answer 4

• women’s contributions were wide-ranging, from taking over jobs left vacant by men to joining one of the semi-military organisations set up before or at the outbreak of war such as the VAD, the Land Army and the Women’s Hospital Corps
• this afforded women social and economic freedoms they had been previously denied
• some of their war work was motivated by patriotism and conformed to the ‘feminine’ ideal of a nurturing care-giver (such as the VADs and Hospital Corps)
• the role played by munitions workers was more controversial as it was directly linked with the taking of life as it involved the production of weaponry

Question 5

What are the main ways in which Barker presents masculinity and emasculation?

Answer 5

• Barker stresses a paradox throughout the novel, that war, which is meant to be one of the most masculine activities, was actually responsible for their breakdown
• Barker presents a tension between the traditionally expected masculine ideals and the experiences of the convalescing soldiers (i.e. the idea of it all ending in a ‘glorious cavalry charge’ -> allusion perhaps to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s CotLB)
• the idea of emasculation is embodied in the image of a shell-shocked soldier, one who has endured months or years of fear, brutality and extreme conditions before breaking down and being unable to fight
• she presents physical and psychological manifestations of emasculation

Question 6

In what ways do many of the male characters feel they are not ‘real men’?

Answer 6

• they suffer from physical injuries (i.e. amputations) which make them powerless and infantilised as they have to be cared for
• they suffer from symptoms of war trauma (i.e. hysteria, which was believed to be a ‘female malady’)
• they are sexually inadequate (such as ‘impotent’, paralysed Willard and the young man who was castrated by his injuries that Sassoon and Graves speak of in chapter 3)
• Sassoon, Owen and Graves (although he later denies it) are homosexual and thus viewed as abnormal by the heteronormative society of the time
• although he doesn’t express that he is suffering from a masculinity crisis, Rivers’s role as a nurturing, caring doctor could be viewed as traditionally female

Question 7

What methods does Barker employ to explore the theme of masculinity and emasculation?

Answer 7

• directly comments upon the paradox of war through
• explores the tension between expectations and reality through the experiences and suffering of her male characters
• foregrounds the idea of masculine identity crisis through a largely male cast of characters that do not conform to the masculine ideal because of sexual inadequacy or deviation; physical injuries resulting in disempowerment; or psychological suffering (i.e. hysteria), which was believed to be a female complaint
• foregrounds the theme of masculine identity crisis by setting the novel in a hospital for the treatment of shell-shock

Question 8

Which characters drive the theme of masculinity most?

Answer 8

• Anderson and his dream of wearing ladies corsets in chapter 4
• the young boy mentioned by Sassoon and Graves
• Prior and his pressure to conform to