Classifying the Body in the Second World War: British Men in and Out of Uniform

Abstract

This article argues that the imaginary and the experienced body cannot fully be understood without an appreciation of the specific historical context in which they are formed. Offering a case study of military masculinity in Britain in the Second World War, the article examines the significance of the medical examination and subsequent physical classification of potential recruits to the Armed Forces in constructions of the male body. Individual responses, drawn from oral testimonies, are examined to explore the relationship between the discursive and experienced body. These suggest the power of the social body in defining the meaning of the individual body. Nonetheless, despite the dominance of physical classification in the definition of hegemonic masculinity, individual experiences reveal that the concept and meaning of physical grading could be negotiated in ways which introduced less stable and more multiple meanings of the individual body and its relationship to the national body

Individual Bodies, Collective State Interests

“…In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in militarized masculine bodies (Armitage 2003). The research in this field explores how the masculine civilian body is adapted to military use and demonstrates how, with the inculcation of military principles, the body is classified, transformed, and reshaped to meet military and state goals (Ben-Ari 1998;Higate 2003;Peniston-Bird 2003). I suggest that we should look at the connection between these transformative body techniques and the motivation or persuasion question posed by Kovitz, to analyze how specific constructions of militarized bodies lure men into fighting and thus serve the interests of the state.…”

Salvaging soldiers, comforting men

“…24 Even for those women on home soil there was a great deal of suspicion about women in uniform, 25 the wearing of which suggested gender bending 26 and women's active participation in the conflict. 27 The shifting of nurses' space from the hospital in Britain to the ward in a war zone transformed her from feminine home-maker to war worker. As Cynthia Enloe argues, military nursing sat on an 'ideological knife-edge', 28 exacerbated by nurses' proximity to naked male patients.…”

Men at work: the working man in British culture, 1939-1945

“…As Corinna Peniston-Bird notes, during the war, 'men did not have a choice whether to conform or reject hegemonic masculinity: they positioned themselves in relation to it.' 25 The concept of masculinity as hierarchical, therefore, is one which is central to the conclusions of this book.…”

“…35 Regardless of the prominent wartime rhetoric of 'all being in it together' there still remained a definite division between combatants and non-combatants. 38 During the Second World War the ideal masculine roles were undoubtedly service personnel, with particular laudation granted to the RAF pilot. Sonya Rose identifies the hegemonic form of masculinity in Britain as a 'temperate masculinity', a mix of the traditional 'soldier hero', as explored by Dawson, and the 'anti-heroic' or 'little man' masculinity which became prevalent during the inter-war period.…”