ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that masculinity is not a stable reflection of the biologically male, and demonstrates that the male body does not always exhibit stereotypically masculine traits. It shows how depictions of male bodies force a new focus on speaking the masculine by breaking the taboo on separating sex and gender, and gesturing towards the constructedness of gender identity. It is especially revealing that the relationship between the male and the masculine comes under particular pressure in the arena of war. Readings of retrospective accounts of the Franco-Prussian war in Les Soirees de Medan (1880) and La Debacle (1892) reveal that writers repeatedly choose to set their investigations of the plurality of masculinity against the backdrop of France's defeat by the Prussians. The 'unmanning' of the male body was initially taboo, a negative move which both contributed to, and commented on, the weakened state of the French nation.
