MODERN MEN: TAKING RISKS AND MAKING MASCULINITY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS Christopher Durnrnitt M.A., Dalhousie University, 1997 B.A., Trent University, 1996 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Department of History O Christopher Dummitt 2004 Simon Fraser University April 2004 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author Approval Name: Christopher Dummitt Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Modem Men: Taking Risks and Making Ma .sculinity in the P ostwar Years Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Derryl MacLean Associate Professor Dr. Tina Loo, Assistant Professor Senior Supervisor Dr. Peter Dickinson Internal External Department of English Dr. Mark Leier Supervisor Dr. Roxanne Panchasi Supervisor Dr. Keith Walden External Examiner, Professor, Department of History, Trent University Date Approved: Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request fiom the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT Postwar Canadian culture explained the predcament of modern men in two contradictory ways. One response suggested that men were the ideal moderns. Traits such as reason, technical abihty, and self-discipline were labelled as masculine, and Canadians turned to a variety of male-dominated fields of expertise, including engineering, automobile safety, urban planning, psychiatry, and psychology, to manage modern forms of risk. The other main approach was to suggest the exact opposite, to claim that modern life sapped men of the traits that made them manly. From this perspective, such modern processes as bureaucratization, suburbanization and white-collar work threatened the very basis of masculinity. In "Modern Men" I demonstrate how these two conflicting attitudes resulted from a widespread postwar attempt to "modernize" mascuhty, to establish a form of gendered modernity that I call "manly modernism." "Modern Men" examines how those in one city, Vancouver, responded to various forms of modern risk and the ways in which they connected maschty with risk-taking and risk-management. Vancouverites' mixed response to the question of what it meant to be a modern man reflected manly modernism's ironic effects. Even as men became the main symbols of postwar modernity, they also became the objects of new forms of discipline and regulation. Although modern expertise was gendered as masculine, many men just as often found themselves the target of discipline from these new professions that, for example, sought to discipline male aggression and restrain overly daring and risky behaviour. Manly modernism justified men's privileges in uneven ways, benefiting some men and some types of masculinity above others and creating unintended consequences by the new ways in which men's social privileges were delivered. In "Modern Men" I suggest that the unexpected predecessors to 1960s criticisms of modernity were the men from the 1940s and 1950s who themselves found much to criticize in modern notions of masculinity and the modernist project with which it was associated. Rarely gender radicals themselves, their criticism of the manly modern ideal nonetheless helped set the stage for the more sustained criticism which followed. for M and J the believers ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many thanks to be given, but at this point, at the end of six and a half years, I'm mostly thankful to be done. For the better part of my twenties, this project has been with me at all times. I thought about it in the archives and at the computer, but I also took it with me when I went on holiday, on Christmas mornings, on walks through Stanley Park, and even when I slept. I am, indeed, thankful to be finished. And yet if I sometimes resented the dissertation's great weight, I also found it comforting. It was a weight I had eagerly taken up. Even now, I'm sad to let it go. A great many people helped me carry the weight; these pages are for them. My first thanks must go to my advisor, Tina Loo. She did not expect to have a doctoral student studying the history of masculinity. Her always original insights and wise direction was all the more generous because of it. Each time I left our meetings at Melriches coffee house, I felt inspired that I could indeed finish the dssertation and that academia was not as desolate a community as I sometimes feared. A great many people at SFU helped me along the way. At different times, fellow graduate students Jane Power, Andy Neufeld, Frank Abbott, and Brian Thorn all provided invaluable friendship and support. With such a small doctoral program, many faculty in the Department of History stepped in to provide the mentorship and friendship that a large cohort provides at other schools. I am especially grateful to Karen Ferguson for all her support over the years. Jack Little was there for me throughout, first in a memorable Canadian comprehensive field and since as a source of advice and wisdom. Roxanne Panchasi came in at the late stages to make my defence a very good experience. And Mark Leier provided consistent and much appreciated criticism. From the English Department, Peter Dickinson gave sound advice for the revisions I should make when I turn the dssertation into a book. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the support I received on a daily basis from the staff in the department over the years. From across the city at the other institution, Bob McDonald took an interest in my work for which I am very grateful. His comments on chapter four of this dissertation (which he saw and decided to publish in his role as editor of BC Sttldies) not only greatly improved that chapter, they also helped at a crucial stage in my revisions of the whole project. He's also a very nice and funny man, a fact I learned well in the long car ride to and from Kamloops in May of 2001. And from the other side of the continent, Shirley Tillotson continued to give advice and write letters even when she probably thought her duties as MA supervisor were long over. My university career was nicely bookended when Keith Walden from Trent University agreed to act as the external reviewer for my dmertation. I had always respected hls written work and I learned from his questions and comments at the defence that he is just as insightful in person. A number of institutions (and those acting on their behalf) made hsdissertation possible. Staff at the National Archives of Canada, the British Columbia Archives and the City of Vancouver Archives offered their assistance. I was also lucky enough to access the private archives of the British Columbia Medical Association and the British Columbia Automobile Association. In each of these cases, staff allowed me to work in their offices and generally make a nuisance of myself. In the case of the British Columbia Mountaineering Club, the club archivist Michael Feller allowed me into his home on a number of weekends in autumn of 2001 and for that I am grateful. Financial support for a doctoral dissertation means a great deal. Grants and fellowships provide not only monetary resources, they also tell the student that his work is valuable, that someone thinks highly enough of it to give money. This makes me especially appreciative of the strong support I received from in the form of Graduate Fellowships and a President's Research Stipend from Simon Fraser University. I am also thankful to the Ewart Memorial Fund Grant from the University of Manitoba which allowed for a research trip to Ottawa and to the founders of the Leon J Ladner Graduate Scholarship in History. When I was little, my mother used to tell me that I could be anything when I grew up. She was wrong - I couldn't have been a nuclear physicist, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be an accountant. But I'm glad that I didn't realize that she was wrong until too late. I had already convinced myself that I could become a historian and, somewhere in my twenties when self-doubt began to set in, I'd been so thoroughly indoctrinated that I never quite gave up. For always believing in me, this dissertation is dedicated to my mother. This dssertation is also dedcated to another believer, my wife Juliet. Hers is a belief of another kind - a belief that oceans and time zones don't matter, and that she and I do. For leading me to a purer and more rewarding faith, this dissertation is for her. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval ............................................................................................................u ... Abstract ............................................................................................................