ABSTRACT
Physical courage was an integral aspect of masculine codes of honour. Violence, or the threat of it, underpinned honour codes. In times of war, courage was overwhelmingly constructed as masculine. Men who demonstrated that they were incapable of physical courage, generally, were shamed. Men who proved they were not up to the task of embodying this emotional virtue during the war were not only shamed but also subject to the threat of physical retaliation. This chapter examines the gendered nature of courage at the turn of the twentieth century. It also analyses the various attitudes towards shaming male cowards adopted by different groups of nationalist women: British, Irish, and Australian. Whereas British anti-feminist women rejected any form of man shaming on the grounds that women were not equipped to understand male cowardice because they were not trained in masculine honour codes, Irish women challenged the propounded masculine nature of physical courage. Patriotic Australian women, who were at first reluctant to intrude into masculine emotional regimes to shame their national manhood, adopted a specific technique that enabled them to overcome that initial hesitancy: they appropriated male voices to threaten violence against male cowards.
