The Negative Transformative Role of War on Sexuality and Gender Role.
Throughout ancient history, society expected male to be hardcore and protective. Being
active in warfare not only increases male social status but also reassures masculinity.However,
this perception changed as industrialization developed. Trench warfare invented in World War I,
and deadly weapons such as poison gas put into use in World War II distinctively transformed
modern combats to be extensive and aggressive. As a result, unlike embracing the heroic
masculinity as the middle class expected, war brings psychological problems among military
personnel, especially soldiers. According to article The Impact of War on Mental Health: Lest We
Forget published in 2015, military operations and battles contribute to Post-Traumatic stress,
mental health distress and illness, neurological problems associated with trauma, and cases of
social deviance(McFarlane 26). On top of the emotional deterioration, men who suffer from
PTSD also exhibit disorders such as infliction of pain and sexual violence. As women were
expected to nurture their traumatized husbands despite facing domestic violence, war also
negatively transform women’s sexuality and gender role. In the book Male Sexuality and
Psychological Trauma: Soldiers and Sexual Disorder in World War I and Weimar Germany
published in 2008, author Crouthamel states that the widespread conception was the women were
responsible to restore their emotional distant, sexually unresponsive and violent men back to
normal, while males “haunted by their memories slipped into traditionally feminine
roles” (75).Besides, there were increased number of criminal acts committed by females who
“mirrored their male counterparts” as violent beings (Crouthamel 75). The authors of book
Mental Health Consequences of War:Gender Specific Issues reassures the idea of women as
victims of war by demonstrating how their expected social roles change depending on altered
male gender role(Murthy and Lakshminarayana 33). In this paper, I will argue that although the
war had been perceived as a celebration of hardcore masculinity and receptive femininity,
modern industrial combat diminishes the positive connotation of war as it negatively transforms
both male and female sexuality as well as challenges traditional gender roles. Art created in
Enlightenment period such as Neoclassical paintings Oath of the Horatii, and Napoleon crossing
the Alps by Jacques Louis David demonstrated male eagerness to fight, to conquer and to win.
On the contrary, contemporary war photograph collected by British Imperial War Museum depict
devastated male soldiers with PTSD, and female who actively participate in community and
military during and after World War I.
