Imagining and Performing Masculinities

Abstract

There was a widely held idea in post-war Britain that national service would ‘make a man of you’, which shaped interviewees’ recollections. Men spoke about the man-making rituals they experienced as conscripts in relation to changing ideas and practices of masculinity they encountered across the life course. The chapter emphasises the importance of practice over cultural scripts. It dwells on the role of often quite brutal basic training but also the way that was subsequently modified as the regime softened, allowing for the expression of a variety of masculinities. Moreover, despite the approval of certain modes masculine conduct, the connection with military valour was rejected by the majority of interviewees.