Effect of World War 2 on Australias Social and Sexual Behavior - Essay Example

Before the Second World War, sexual life was a private affair with very limited coverage in the public sphere in Australia due to the traditional cultural setting of the inhabitants. During the war, many American troops headed to Australia. It was during this time that the public perception and conversation on sex started having a new look. Women were heavily involved in paid work during the time. This change allowed women to exercise their financial freedom and exploit their sexuality despite having an inferior pay compared to their male counterparts. Additionally, press material started focusing on another aspect of womanhood. The traditional mindset in Australia puts the womans role in the domestic domain of raising healthy children and taking care of a husband. Ernest Scott in Australia During the War agrees that the war allowed women to explore themselves as attractive beings (Scott, 1989). With the new fund financial and social freedom, women could explore their sexuality. Additionally, the Second World War opened a chapter where homosexual relations, especially among male soldiers, rose. This paper is an attempt to assess the effects of the Second World War on the sexual behavior and affairs in Australia in addition to how this shaped todays views on sexuality and sexual activities.

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Historian Max Hasting, in is an article in the Daily Mail, points out that although the war brought sexual brutality on women in Australia, it also brought sexual and social freedom beyond any other their wildest dreams (Hastings, 2011). The mobilization women carried out while taking part in the war was an important social element. Another report by Forced Adoption History project agrees that during this time, many Australian women were expected to take care of their nuclear families and fulfill their roles as housewives and mothers. However, the teenage culture was slowly starting to take shape in Australia among young girls. Through new music, new culture, expectations, and ideas from television coupled with their ability to earn some money through part time jobs, teenagers started embracing another culture that promoted privacy and rebellion against the parents austerity (Forced Adoptions, 2017). This newfound freedom among young girls cultivated a culture of increased premarital sex and the idea of dating became more common. The increased demand for Australian women to join the workforce increased when more men were required to serve in the military, leaving vacancies in various sectors such as public service, insurance, and banking. According to Marylin Lake, the idea of a newly independent woman was born from the war activities (Lake and Joy, 1995).

Although the war incorporated the services of women in the service, there was growing concern over the rise of the masculine woman. The military administration was keen on maintaining the femininity of servicewomen (Shutes, 1975). According to Ruth Ford, a distinct lesbian network and identity began to shape up in the mid-twentieth century, attracting the attention of the administration that insisted on the heterosexual attractiveness of women who served in the military (Forced Adoptions, 2017). Ford points out that auxiliary services provided grounds for the cultivation of homosexual behaviors among women. Apart from the difference in pay rates with distinguished the genders, women were freely allowed to wear trousers and jackets that brought out their masculinity and encouraged lesbianism under tight surveillance and even persecution (Lake and Joy, 1995).

Among the soldiers who were predominantly men in most of the battlefields, gay sexual behaviors were slowly gaining prominence. Andrew Stephens of the Sydney Morning Herald points out that the soldiers started fantasizing of female figures towards the end of the war after the assurance of victory as they had stayed for a long time without heterosexual relations. During the time, homosexuality was illegal in the Australian military attracting a punishment of lifetime imprisonment (Forced Adoptions, 2017). However, this did not stop the butch soldiers from hitting on on the queens as they were referred. In late 1943, a group of Australian soldiers known as the Kamp recorded stories of homosexual experiences in New Guinea (Stevens, 2012). Dennis Atman quotes the late American veteran army soldier and author Gore Vidal in his book Coming Out in the Seventies pointing the Australian soldiers preference of homosexuality (Lake and Joy, 1995). Australian soldiers had a reputation of rolling over on their stomachs most obediently, he points out (Altman, 1979). Frank Bongiorno, another author, also suggests that there could be more cases of homosexuality among the Australian soldiers than what the military administration and records admitted, owing to the embarrassing nature of the act at that time and the kind of attention it could attract (Bongiorno, 2013). John Costello proceeds to assert that the Second World War served as a way of removing some of the taboos that were associated with gays and lesbian behavior (Costello, 1995). Stephen Bourne also agrees that the war allowed thousands of homosexuals in Australia to become conscious of their new collective identity (Bourne, 2014).

In conclusion, the Second World War brought many changes in the sexual culture and environment of Australians. It provided women with a chance to explore their femininity attractiveness to their advantage. Women stopped being domestic beings and moved to become the faces of corporate employment in the absence of women. Additionally, due to the strict nature of military and lack of heterosexual relations opportunities, same-sex relations became more popular, despite the administration trying as hard as possible to hide facts. The rising teenage culture also secularized dating and sexual relations, bringing a lasting social effect to the country felt to date.

References

Altman, D. (1979). Coming out in the seventies. Wild & Woolley.

Bourne, S., 2014. On the Same Side: Homosexuals During the Second World War. History Extra.

Bongiorno, F. (2013). Sexuality: An Australian Historian's Perspective.

Costello, J. (1985). Love, sex, and war: changing values, 1939-45. HarperCollins.

Forced Adoptions, 2017. Social Change and Post-war Unmarried Mothers. National Archives of Australia. Hastings, M, 2011. Women were brutalized by World War 2 but for millions, it means social and sexual freedom beyond their wildest dreams. Daily Mail Online.

Lake, M., and Joy, D., 1995. Gender and War. Australians at War in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press.

Shutes, C, 1975. Heroines and Heroes: Sexual Mythology in Australia 1914-1918. Cambridge University Press.

Scott, E., 1989. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Australia During the War. University of Queensland Press.

Stevens, A, 2012. A Secret History of Sexuality on the Front. The Sydney Morning Herald.