Introduction

Abstract

As the twenty-first century opens, images of the Second World War in the form of archive material, documentaries, films and situation comedies constantly reaffirm British national identity. However, Women, Sexuality and War explores the memories and accounts of women who lived through that time in order to explore their sense of identity; what ‘The People’s War’ meant to them. At a superficial level the ‘The People’s War’ sounds gender-neutral; in reality, constructions and reconstructions of that war are masculine in nature. Nostalgia is evoked for a time when the British people were sure of who they were and their place in the world, when they enjoyed a sense of belonging. In an increasingly fragmented and individualist culture the Second World War plays an important part in framing a view of what it was, and is, to be British. Popular culture in the guise of film, television, newspaper articles and sensationalist (often sporting) headlines remind us of the spirit of Britain. However, even a cursory glance reveals their gendered and exclusive nature for women are marginalised and publicly excluded. Remembrance ceremonies and celebrations of the Second World War are directed at active masculinity – dead or alive. The history of the period has been constructed and reconstructed around the heroic myths of men. Despite the fact that the civilian population faced as much danger as the armed forces, the war continues to be presented as a male institution, as something men attended to in order to protect women at home. Within these popular discourses masculine accounts of the Second World War create narratives of male heroism, and if women are included, their femininity is problematised.