The Importance of Being Butch in the War

I think it's a whole idea of being put into a uniform. You had a sort of higher status in masculinity, and one of the pilots I write about from 158 Squadron talks about how the Tricia and Rey and Bomber Command had given a sort of macabre eroticism to Bomber Pilots. Their masculinity was sort of heightened by that. It was interesting as well, Quentin Chris writes about how all the women in London have suddenly gone butch because they are joining things like the ATS and the Wafs or whatever. So I just love this idea that the uniform is supposed to make you perform one kind of military masculinity, but within that, everyone is kind of messing with it