Armed forces have always exploited contemporary notions of masculinity and femininity to enlist troops. This First World War (1914–18) poster insinuates women will only marry heroic returned soldiers.
The Victorian Premier, Alexander Peacock, asked the townspeople of Koroit in 1916 ‘…what man would not risk his life if his wife or sister’ [was] subjected to the kind of treatment the Germans had meted out to the women of Belgium[?]‘
ON LOAN COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL ARTV00818
Reviewed 07 February 2022