Sexing the Citizen: Morality and Masculinity in France, 1870–1920 (review)

How does the modern French nation state pursuing liberal, egalitarian and secular goals encourage but also control 'good' citizenship? It is this question with its tacit assumption that such citizens are sexed and gendered male that Judith Surkis sets out to address with particular focus on Third Republic France. Rather than reading this period as one of political crises (1870, fin de siècle decadence, Dreyfus, the First World War), or of fixed norms for the sexes (grounded in legal frameworks), Surkis argues strongly that it demonstrates the continuities, ambiguities and paradoxes that inform idealized models of French Republican masculinity from the Revolution to current citizen debates (spearheaded by the foulard affair for example). The Third Republic's negotiation of how to school 'good male' socialization is then explored in four sections: its primary, and secondary education policies (the bachelier); its fostering and regulation of the individual's responsibilities to, and relationships within, society following Durkheim; and finally its hygienist policies for the 'good' sexual conduct of male civilians and military conscripts alike. In all four arenas Surkis uncovers the same fragile and fractured nature of Republican constructions of masculinity based on conjugal heterosexuality (the complementary difference between the sexes). Paradigmatic Third Republican citizenship is then not a universal but a tautology in Surkis's widely researched and convincing analysis, the elision of male and masculine with citizenship, and as everywhere distinct from female and feminine members of the social body. In this, and by not adhering to crisis models for understanding the Third Republic, Surkis moves historical and gender studies analyses of the period into new and useful terrains whereby the very norms of (male) citizenship which informed its educational and medical policies can themselves be opened to question. By not engaging with or returning to the legal codes and frameworks (such as the Code Civil) which fixed such norms, however, Surkis could be criticized for leaving female and non-heterosexual citizens even more elided than feminist and gay studies critics of the period have argued. In the end, the unquestioned strengths of this widely documented and rich study are its challenges to 'normative' masculinity as fostered by its obviously male reformers, educators and policy-makers. Schooling, rather than 'sexing' the citizen in France, 1870-1920 might then be the even more apt first word for the title of this book since its multi-facetted work only returns enquiry to legal definitions and requirements of the period, especially the realm of its free, lay and obligatory education.