Socialist Antimilitarist Manlinesses: Visual Representations and Normativity in Norway circa 1914

Abstract

This essay aims at developing the research on antimilitarist men from gender perspectives to acquire more nuanced and precise understandings. The focus is on pictures. I interpret images and texts as elements in cultural communication and in relation to their historical contexts, and look at how socialist antimilitarist ideals and norms coincided with and differed from dominant notions of what men should be. The essay includes discussions of concepts of masculinity, manliness, and unmanliness. I argue that socialist antimilitarist manlinesses contested military values in various degrees and forms, and find four different but overlapping sets of ideals and norms. The first three are revolutionary, muscular, and pacifist socialist manliness, and the fourth is related to visions of a new humanity. I also argue that to better understand men taking the risk to be culturally marginalized, we need more research with a focus on the perspectives of the men themselves.