A Discussion of the Representation of Masculinity and Femininity in ...

supportive representations of boyhood, imperialism and militarism in the texts aimed at
the Scouts. It was argued that these representations were linguistically realized through
first person plural pronouns and the inclusive ‘we’, relational modality, as well as through
sociosemantic realizations. The Scouts were represented as the Actors of transactive
material processes, and were instructed to do as the Knights did and be as disciplined
as them and the soldiers of the First World War. As argued by Bristow, the Scouts are
“identified not so much with but rather as the nation” (p.45), that is, the most idealized
masculine behaviour that is represented in the texts is that which is performed by men
who fight for their country in order to maintain its imperial status.
The Brownies’ texts include the presentation of heroic and non-heroic men as
citizens to look up to, however, the Scouts’ texts do not include any heroic or non-heroic
presentations of women (apart from when women are referred to in terms of how a
Scout can be helpful and polite to them in the ‘Chivalry’ text). Masculinity and femininity
therefore are mutual constructs “to the extent that they construct each other even (or
perhaps especially) when one of them is not mentioned” (Sunderland, 2000: 267).
Sunderland’s argument seems well exemplified by the data of this study, and by the fact
that masculinity is so strongly constructed by the lack of representations of femininity in
the Scouts’ texts. Femininity and masculinity are still mutually constructive within these
discourses, but representations of femininity had to contain representations of
masculinity in a social world that only recognized women when they had entered
motherhood and marriage, in other words when they had secured a bond with a man.
The present study found that Brownies were represented in the 3rd person and
that expressive modality was employed in their texts more than relational modality.
Furthermore, they were represented as being the actors of non-transactive behavioural
processes and descriptivised as naturally doing ‘kindnesses’ in their performance of
idealized femininity: serving other people.
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