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Body Fascism in Britain: Building the Blackshirt in the Inter-War Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

JULIE GOTTLIEB
JULIE GOTTLIEB*
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, Department of History, 1 Upper Hanover Street, Sheffield S3 7RA; [email protected]
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Abstract

In recent years scholars have devoted a great deal of attention and theorisation to the body in history, looking both at bodies as metaphors and as sites of intervention. These studies have tended to focus on the analysis of bodies in a national context, acting for and acted upon by the state, and similarly the ever-expanding study of masculinity continues to try to define hegemonic masculinities. But what if we direct our gaze to marginal bodies, in this case Blackshirt bodies who act against the state, and a political movement that commits assault on the body politic? This article examines the centrality of the body and distinctive gender codes in the self-representation, the performance and practice, and the culture of Britain's failed fascist movement during the 1930s. The term ‘body fascism’ has taken on different and much diluted meaning in the present day, but in the British Union of Fascists’ construction of the Blackshirted body, in the movement's emphasis on the embodiment of their political religion through sport, physical fitness and public display of offensive and defensive violence, and in their distinctive and racialised bodily aesthetic illustrated in their visual and graphic art production we come to understand Britain's fascist movement as a product of modernity and as one potent expression of the convergence between populist politics and body fixation.

Le corps fasciste en grande bretagne: la construction des “chemises noires” dans l'entre-deux-guerres

La recherche historique des années récentes a beaucoup examiné et théorisé le corps humain, qu'elle regarde à la fois comme métaphore et comme site d'intervention. De telles études ont porté surtout sur l'analyse du corps en contexte national, le corps qui agit pour l'état ou subit l'action de l'état, tandis que les études toujours proliférantes sur la ou les masculinité(s) s'efforcent de définir ce concept en termes hégémoniques. Que se passe-t-il, alors, si nous orientons notre regard sur le corps marginal, en ce cas sur le corps habillé d'une chemise noire qui agit contre l'état – sur un mouvement politique qui s'attaque au corps politique? Dans cet article nous examinons la centralité du corpos et la codification des genres dans l'auto-représentation, la performance, la pratique et la culture du mouvement fasciste britannique – mouvement échoué – de l'entre-deux-guerres. Aujourd'hui le terme «fascisme corporel» a pris un sens différent et très affaibli, mais c'est à travers la construction du corps en chemise noire par l'Union fasciste britannique (British Union of Fascists) – à travers son zèle pour l'incarnation d'une religion politique à travers le sport, la forme physique et la parade publique de la violence offensive et défensive, et aussi dans l'esthétique corporelle unique et racialisée qu'on retrouve partout dans leur production artistique visuelle et graphique – que nous arriverons à comprendre le mouvement fasciste britannique comme un produit de la modernité et une puissante expression de la convergence entre politique populiste et obsession du corps.

Körperfaschismus in großbritannien: die blackshirts in der zwischenkriegszeit

In den letzten Jahren haben sich Historikerinnen und Historiker verstärkt der Körpergeschichte gewidmet, etwa indem sie Körper als Metaphern lasen oder in ihnen Orte gesellschaftlicher und politischer Intervention sahen. Solche Studien haben sich vor allem auf die Erforschung von Körpern im Zusammenhang mit staatlicher Politik bemüht. Zugleich haben Studien zur Männergeschichte unser Verständnis von hegemonialer Maskulinität deutlich differenziert. Aber was geschieht, wenn wir unseren Blick auf Körper an den Rändern der Politik richten, wie zum Beispiel jene der britischen faschistischen Blackshirts, die sich gegen den Staat richteten und darauf zielten den politischen Körper als body politic anzugreifen? Dieser Artikel untersucht die Zentralität von Körperpolitik und die Bedeutung von Kategorien des Geschlechts in der Codierung, Selbstrepräsentation, Performanz und Praxis für die letztlich gescheiterte britische fascistische Bewegung während der 1930er Jahre. Heute hat der Terminus “Körperfaschismus” eine ganz andere Bedeutung erhalten, aber in der Konstruktion des fascistischen Körpers durch die British Union of Fascists, in der Betonung ihrer politischen Religion durch sportliche Ertüchtigung, physische Gesundheit und in Praxis von offensiver und defensiver Gewalt sowie in ihrer besonderen rassisch aufgeladenen Körperästhetik, wie sie sich in visuellen und graphischen Quellen zeigen lässt, lernen wir die britische faschistische Bewegung als Produkt der Moderne kennen, welches die Konvergenz zwischen populistischer Politik und Körperfixierung zum Ausdruck brachte.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 2011 , pp. 111 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 However, some articles use the term more precisely, and at least evoke the memory of fascism as an historical phenomenon. Polly Toynbee's interpretation of the Atlanta Olympics is headlined ‘Triumph of the Body Fascists’, Independent, 17 July 1996, and here there is an attempt to demonstrate that the search for physical perfection is an essentially fascist pursuit: ‘the Olympic idea is essentially fascist in inspiration and Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia stands as the abiding Olympic image’. While it is the only anchoring of the term in an article largely about going to the gym and the pressure to workout continuously, Stephen Moss admits that ‘in my quest for physical and mental perfection, for manifest purpose, I am becoming intolerant of the messiness and inconsequentiality of life. This may be how fascism begins’. Stephen Moss, ‘Body Fascism: In his Continuing Battle for the Body Beautiful, Stephen Moss Develops a Disturbing Contempt for Weaklings’, The Guardian, 28 March 2000. The term is also used in a far more sinister way by disability activists and campaigners, recognising the long history of the persecution of those deemed ‘unfit’ or eugenically unviable, which reached its tragic climax under the Nazi regime in Germany.

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26 ‘A Fascist Holiday Camp’, Blackshirt, no. 4, 1 April 1933.

27 See, for instance, news of the establishment of a cycling club in Blackshirt, no. 55, 11–17 May 1934.

28 See ‘Tours to Fascist Countries’, Blackshirt, no. 4, 1 April 1933; ‘Student Tours’, Blackshirt, no. 8, 1 June 1933.

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44 The accounts of opposition activists and observers were gathered together in the lengthy pamphlet ‘Fascists at Olympia: A Record of Eye-Witnesses and Victims’, compiled by ‘Vindicator’ (London: Gollancz, 1934).

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52 G. S. Gueroult, ‘Apathy’, 1934, Mosley Papers, Nicholas Mosley Deposit, Box 8, University of Birmingham.

53 Ibid.

54 Blackshirt, no. 2, March 1933.

55 ‘“Mosley: Hero of a New Age”: Streicher Hails English Fascists’, quoted in the Jewish Chronicle, 22 Jan. 1937, 17.

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