Adam Lee 15599412

Heroic Masculinities in an Era of Domesticity

A nation’s achievements can often be historically characterised by those who stand as their
figureheads, elevated to the podium of national hero in the hope of emulating a cultural rhetoric.
The British Empire saw this pivotally through its promotion of stoic, nationalistic adventures
representative of the imperial age. Yet, following the decline of Empire and British colonialism, a
transition towards a more domesticated male hero can be seen after the end of the First World War.
This will be the focus of this paper. In order to convey such a cultural change, I will predominantly
focus on the representations and stances on masculinity taken by multiple historians and writers on
the subject of Colonel T. E Lawrence, more famously know as Lawrence’s of Arabia. My stance will
contrast the contemporary work of Lowell Thomas, whose article in The Strand Magazine celebrates
Lawrence from his own personal meetings, with more modern sources looking back at this period in
British cultural History with the benefits of hindsight. I will also ponder on the Ideas of ‘non
whiteness’ in Lawrence’s portrayal and the contrasts between his interwar image of masculinity and
the depictions of the previous colonial age. In order to map this change clearly and best understand
the cultural significance it can be associated to, I will digress towards sources which convey the
colonial masculine image in an effort to examine the contrasts.

Within the pages of The Strand Magazine, we see an appreciative piece concerning Colonel T. E
Lawrence, written by Lowell Thomas in January 1920. Even Thomas himself admits to the
conjurement of exaggerated expectations of Lawrence fuelled from ‘scenes familiar through the
fairy story books of childhood’. However he later highlights, possibly in keeping with the promotion
of Lawrence’s ‘Hero’ rhetoric, that the myth of Lawrence was ‘very much a reality’.1 This is
interesting as it suggests an audience whom, like Thomas, grew up idolizing the heroic, masculine
figure of the Imperial war hero. Thomas engages in a descriptive approach, painting Lawrence as in
the usual trimmings of the Heroic British adventurer. This is possibly done in the hope of attracting
the readers interest, a stance which Graham Dawson highlights in his book Soldier heroes; British
adventure, empire, and the imagining of masculinities as living up to ‘the familiar Western
imaginative geography of an exotic and romantic Orient’.2 Thomas does this by describing traditional
traits stereotypically associated with exotic adventurers of the Empire, in keeping with figures such
as General Gordon and Robert Baden-Powell. For example, effort is made to distinguish Lawrence’s
appearance upon their first meeting, with a focus on his native dress, which is described as being
‘worn in the Near East only by native rulers’.3 The ‘short curved sword of a prince of Mecca’ at his
belt also adds a warlike quality to his depiction, in keeping with the Imperial idea of masculinity.4
This description immediately elevates Lawrence towards the traditional schema of the Heroic
Imperial adventurer, possibly even hinting at a theme of nobility. Thomas pushes this fantastical
description further when commenting on Lawrence having a complexion ‘as blond as a
Scandinavian’, likening him to the Viking sagas and heroes. This imagery would naturally elevate the
masculine aspects of Lawrence, appealing to the audience, especially young men.5

1
Lowell Thomas. ’The Uncrowned King of Arabia’, The Strand Magazine, January 1920, p43.
2
Graham Dawson. Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London, 1994)
168.
3
The Strand Magazine, January 1920. p41.
4
The Strand Magazine, January 1920. p41.
5
The Strand Magazine, January 1920. p42.
Adam Lee 15599412

In contrast to Thomas, Graham Dawson focuses on Lawrence of Arabia and the ideas of a transition
in the depiction of heroic figures and a softening of manliness and masculine qualities. Dawson
argues that the portrayal of Colonel T.E Lawrence in the Film Lawrence of Arabia conveys a sense of
the changing image of the hero at a time which saw soldiering and military service as the crucible of
masculine activity. The 1962 film plays on this idea, with Lawrence’s appearance setting him apart
from the more traditional depictions of the Imperial Soldier. In Dawson’s words, Lawrence of Arabia
presents ‘the spectacle of that most masculine of men’ in a new and modern light, showing the lead
character, the heroic icon ‘elaborately arrayed in flowingskirts, in transgression of gender fixities’.6
As Allison Light points out in her book Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism
Between the Wars, unlike Dawson, Lowell Thomas does not benefit from the opportunity of
hindsight and the ability to map a change in the presentation of the modern man. Thomas portrays
Lawrence in a style very much in keeping with the traditional Imperial Hero, yet the subject matter
and aspects of his portrayal can give us an inclination into the imminent change in perception.

Therefore, it is impossible to overlook certain oddities within The uncrowned King of Arabia that
challenge the success of Thomas’s portrayal of Lawrence as an Imperial Hero and icon. This idea is
focused upon by Light, who debates a hypothesis on the existence of multiple narratives within any
historical writing. Light writes that ‘all novels, whether they mean to or not, give us a medley of
different voices, languages and positions, and none can sustain a single 'argument' with the reader’.7
It is instantly possible to see this within Thomas’s work on Lawrence, especially when contemplating
the ideas presented previously by Dawson concerning Lawrence as a ‘rather different kind of
Englishman’.8 Within the descriptions and imageries of Thomas’s article, aspects of Lawrence’s
character fall more towards Dawson’s ideas of a changing masculine ideal. For example, we are told
of how Lawrence appears youthful and clean shaven, and of how he ‘sat in a corner, listening
intently to everything that was being said, but contributing nothing to the conversation himself’.9
Thomas also points out the shyness of Lawrence’s upon their first meeting. This imagery, of a fairly
young introverted man directly contradicts the implied grandeur that Thomas awards Lawrence
when promoting him earlier in the source. It is not, however, simply Lawrence’s mannerisms that
break tradition in this way. Dawson composes the idea that Lawrence and his celebration in-
avertedly presents an end to ‘the informally codified rules that, at least since the Indian Rebellion,
had governed white colonial masculinity and upheld the authority of Empire’.10 The focus therefore
on Lawrence’s Native dress within The uncrowned King of Arabia contain underlining political
aspects. We could argue that Lawrence and his appraisals mark the end of the colonial ideas of the
‘man’, unmistakably white and western, in favour of a heroic and celebrated figure whose
appearance is closer to that of non-white cultures previously occupied by the Empire.

It must be noted that Thomas’s focus on the ‘non whiteness’ of Lawrence as a British Masculine hero
was a stark contrast from the realities of Colonial Britain. For years previous to the time of Lawrence,
the Empire of Britain was effectively grounded in the resolution that Whiteness and the white man
weight far superior to all other ethnical groups. There are many cases for this, for example the
British judges of colonial south Asia and their inability to act objectively when evaluating crimes such

6
Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London, 1994). 167.
7
Alison Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars (London, 1991), 2.
8
Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London, 1994). 170.
9
The Strand Magazine, January 1920. p43.
10
Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London, 1994).170.
Adam Lee 15599412

as those of a white man, named Captain McCormick, against the Malayan family.11 Therefore, Bright
and Dilley could be suggesting that this ethnic leverage conveys a sense of the superiority of the
White male within British colonies, and an inability to fairly represent those deemed as ‘Non-white’.
Faced with such a history of inequality, if is evident that Thomas’s appreciation of Lawrence and his
‘exotic’ appearance represents a cultural shift away from the Colonial ideology.

To conclude, the decline of colonial heroic masculinity through the representation of Colonel T. E.
Lawrence from Lowell Thomas’s work conveys a clear sense of cultural change and the shifts in the
way the public expected the modern figure of the man to look and act. Dawson ideas on Lawrence
as an key film icon from the 1960’s, and Light’s hypothesis on the multi-narrative inevitability of any
work convey the importance of Thomas’s appreciations of Lawrence and the far reaching, often
subtle aspects that any popular work can have on cultural change. Although this is but one specific
case study, the notoriety of Lawrence in the post First world war period and beyond suggests his
importance in this change.

Bibliography

Bright, Rachel K. Dilly, Andrew R. ‘After the British World’, The Historical Journal. Vol. 60 Issue 2.
June (2017), p 529-533.

Dawson, Graham. Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities
(London, 1994).

Light, Allison. Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars
(London, 1991). 1-19.

Thomas, Lowell. ’The Uncrowned King of Arabia’, The Strand Magazine, January 1920.

11
Rachel K Bright. Andrew R Dilly. ‘After the British World’, The Historical Journal. Vol. 60 Issue 2,. June (2017),
p 529-533.