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CANBERRA - If the average Anzac bloke had to go to war at the drop of a hat, would he be too soft?
European governments in the 18th and 19th centuries were so worried their human fighting machines were becoming mollycoddled mummy's boys that they invented the "macho
man" image.
The image was so successful it eventually led to the creation of modern day superheroes.
In a paper presented at the Australian National University in Canberra, historian Dr Christopher Forth examines the male image and war.
Dr Forth said the image of the macho man was fabricated to prepare "soft" middle class men for battle.
"Around this time, the view developed that the strength of the nation lay in the might of its armies, and the might of the armies lay in the health of its male population.
"But it was also the beginning of a consumer revolution, and many elite men were focused on the finer things in life, living among luxuries and refining their tastes.
"So it became a great concern to physicians as well as national leaders that these men would not be able to defend their nation in a crisis."
Crises such as the French Revolution and the Seven Years' War were catalysts for these concerns in 18th century Europe; other crises kept them alive in later years.
Although Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, early loss of troops was attributed to the idea the men had gone soft.
It also became clear after World War I that 60 per cent of would-be British recruits were rejected because of poor physical fitness.
Similar anxieties also existed in the United States during World War II.
Despite their many victorious campaigns, the American troops weren't trigger-happy enough for some commentators at home, who blamed white collar careers for the lack of aggression.
Dr Forth presented his paper at the Negotiating the Sacred: Religion, Medicine and the Body conference at the Australian National University last week.
"The flip side to the nationalist mythology of the warrior male is the idea that there's too much of a gap between the soft civilian man and the kind of man needed for wartime," he said.
Harsher military training, physical exercise and rough team sports were some of the methods used to force otherwise sedentary and soft men to deal with pain and violence, hardship and endurance.
British fathers sent their boys to boarding school not for the education, but for the harsh, cold environment which was considered character building.
The advent of the comic book superhero during World War II was intended to harness nationalism among youth.
Today, Dr Forth said, the concept of "warrior macho man" had become commonplace and continued to be translated through the veneration of athletes and celebrities.
"The kinds of men I'm talking about are meant to be the opposite of and the corrective to modern life - it has to go too far, that's part of it," he said.
"It's also part of the appeal, to fantasise about what you really couldn't get away with, and now even really want to get away with, in day-to-day life."
Despite the modern-day infatuation with fantasy and robust celebrities, Forth said, the "metrosexual" of today is the equivalent of the polite school boy of yesteryear, who was marginalised for being a weakling.
Ironically, American academics and journalists alike have adopted the tag, labelling France's more conciliatory approach to the Iraq War as metrosexual.
"It's a fascinating argument but it makes me think of 18th century British denunciation of the French as effeminate," Dr Forth said.
"It's ongoing, which is the point of the project - that these things are with us, they're embedded in our culture and it's very difficult to overcome them."
- AAP
