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Abstract
By considering the case of J. B. Middlebrook, this article sets out to consider the interrelation between masculinity and male bodies as seen through the lens of male physical disability during the First World War in Britain. In considering the impact of a sudden physical impairment it is clear that disabled men were able to renegotiate their masculine identity with reference to their altered corporeal state. Within this process, hegemonic masculine ideals are able to embrace new conceptions of the self, which indicates the dynamic and flexible notion of this dominant form of gender identity. This counters the claim that disability is necessarily emasculating. It is also increasingly important to embed, where appropriate, our understanding of gender identity within the physical body.
résumé Cet article se penche sur le cas de J. B. Middlebrook afin d'étudier le rapport entre masculinité et corps masculin chez les mutilés de la première guerre mondiale en Grande Bretagne. Etant donné la brutalité de la mutilation soudaine il est clair que ces vétérans ont eu à renégocier leur identité en rapport avec leur corps. Dans ce processus les idéaux masculins hégémoniques sont capables de se tourner vers de nouvelles conceptions de soi qui indiquent la notion dynamique et flexible de la masculinité démontrant ainsi l'importance du physique dans l'étude du genre.
Notes
[1] CitationDearden, Medicine and Duty: A War Diary, 31.
[2] Identity in this context refers to both the body and the mind.
[3] Connell, Masculinities; CitationMangan, Making European Masculinities; Tosh, A Man's Place.
[4] CitationTosh, “Hegemonic Masculinity”, 53–55.
[5] Connell and Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”, 836–37.
[6] CitationConnell and Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”.
[7] This collection only contains letters from Middlebrook and none that he received.
[8] CitationBourke, Dismembering the Male, 11.
[9] CitationConnell, Masculinities, 59–64.
[10] CitationCarden-Coyne, “Classical Heroism, and Modern Life: Bodybuilding in Twentieth Century Australia”.
[11] CitationTosh, “Hegemonic Masculinity”, 54.
[12] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, Aldershot, 28 April 1916.
[13] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 31 December 1915, January 1916 and 28 April 1916.
[14] Interestingly he uses the term man here to mean gender identity rather than biological sex.
[15] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, letter no. 169 c.May 1916.
[16] Impaired means the fact of having an injury, whilst disablement denotes the social construction that surrounds the impairment.
[17] Sherwood, “Memoirs of Leslie L. Sherwood”, 1979, IWMD 95/4/1. Greet is a Scottish word meaning to cry.
[18] CitationQuinn, “Memoir”, 1934, IWMD 67/256/1.
[19] Quinn, “Memoir”, 1934, IWMD 67/256/1.
[20] CitationCivilian, “The Return of the Officer”, 86.
[21] CitationTowers, Reel, 8.
[22] CitationSherman, “Monuments, Mourning and Masculinity”, 82–107.
[23] CitationScarry, The Body in Pain, 1–4.
[24] Chater, “Correspondence from Ward Sister to Mrs Chater”.
[25] CitationJarman, IWMS.
[26] CitationHealey, “My Terrible War”, 1960, IWMD 94/50/1.
[27] Healey, “My Terrible War”.
[28] CitationMiddlebrook, “Correspondence to sister Bessie”, 12 August 1916.
[29] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, letter no. 260 c.August 1916.
[30] CitationRoper, “Maternal Relations”, 295–315.
[31] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, letter no. 170 c.May 1916.
[32] Hospital accounts and financial queries, 1915–1930, PRO, PIN 38/304.
[33] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 26 August 1916.
[34] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 28 September 1916.
[35] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, January 1917.
[36] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 8 and 10 March 1917.
[37] “CitationProsthesis of the lower limb”, Lancet, 151.
[38] CitationChater IWMD, 87/56/1.
[39] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to sister Bessie”, 12 August 1916, and “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 18 September 1917.
[40] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 14 April 1917.
[41] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 6 May 1917.
[42] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 9 June 1917.
[43] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 26 August 1916, 7 September 1917, early January 1917, 14 April 1917, and 16 May 1917 (emphases added).
[44] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 26 August 1916, 7 September 1917, early January 1917, 14 April 1917, and 16 May 1917.
[45] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 18 August 1916 and 12 October 1917.
[46] Chater, “Letter to his parents”, March 1915, IWMD, 87/56/1.
[47] CitationWordsworth, “My personal experience, January 1922”, the Gillies and Macalister Archives (hereafter cited as GA).
[48] CitationPrice, “Bodies and Souls”, 10.
[49] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 30 March 1917 and 9 June 1917.
[50] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother, 20 June 1917.
[51] CitationSherwood, IWMD, 95/4/1.
[52] CitationChapman, “Correspondence to Mrs G. Holford”, 22 December 1934, London Metropolitan Archive (hereafter cited as LMA), Ho2/QM/Y6/3.
[53] CitationHart, Brochure of leg exercises, 1921, PRO, PIN 38/474.
[54] Chapman, “Correspondence to Mrs G. Holford”, 6 July 1918, LMA, Ho2/QM/Y6/3.
[55] CitationWarry, “Account of War Experiences”, 1917, IWMS, 96/12/1.
[56] Middlebrook, “Autobiographical note”.
[57] CitationHospital accounts and financial queries, 1915–1930, PRO, PIN 38/304.
[58] CitationGeneral discussion of scheme, 1918–1919, PRO, PIN 38/477.
[59] CitationPound, 50.
[60] Howcroft, Citation The Songs of a Broken Airman , 18.
[61] CitationLowry, From Mons to 1933, 25.
[62] Middlebrook, “Autobiographical note”.
[63] Whilst some men were more accepting of their disablement than others, we need to be wary of overlaying our view of successful and unsuccessful gender and corporeal renegotiations. As this paper indicates, people are anything but static.
[64] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Bessie”, 4 September 1916.
[65] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 5 June 1916.
[66] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 29 September 1916.
[67] Bourke, 39
[68] CitationLeed, No Man's Land, 204.
[69] CitationMcGowen. “My personal reminiscences of the Great War,” January 1922, GA.
[70] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 16 May 1917.
[71] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother”, 25 September 1916.
[72] Hierarchies of disability can be seen as the best and worst cases. Thus, many felt that deafness was better than blindness, or blindness better than paraplegia. Such a hierarchy can also be seen in public perceptions of impairment, but also expressed by those with an impairment who could rationalise their abilities in relation to others.
[73] Middlebrook, “Correspondence to Mother and Father”, 16 May 1917.
[74] Connell and Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”, 844.