Abstract
Building on the basic premise that the attempt to create a New Man was one of fascism’s master-ideas, this article focuses on the feminine underside of this program of political anthropogenesis. The article centers on the image of the New Woman and the politics of womanhood within the Romanian Legionary movement. It argues that the Legion’s trademark rhetoric of martial heroism and martyrdom led to an essential tension between a virile model of womanhood (patterned upon the masculine ideal type of the martyr-hero) and a more conservative domestic model. A third, reconciliatory hybrid model, which mixed features borrowed from the two antagonistic types of Legionary womanhood was eventually developed to defuse this tension.
Highlights
Prompted by an upsurge of scholarly interest in the relationship between women and fascism, in recent decades a valuable corpus of scholarship has emerged from the intersection of gender and fascist studies.[1]
Building on the basic premise that the attempt to create a New Man was one of fascism’s master-ideas, this article focuses on the feminine underside of this program of political anthropogenesis
The article centers on the image of the New Woman and the politics of womanhood within the Romanian Legionary movement
Summary
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Ion Moța and Vasile Marin Nicolae Constantinescu, Ion Caranica, Doru Belimace Dumitru (Miti) Dumitrescu, Ion Ionescu, Ovidiu Isaia, Ion Moldoveanu, Gheorghe Paraschivescu, Cezar Popescu, Marin Stănciulescu, Traian Popescu, Ion Vasiliu Ion Caratanase, Iosif Bozântan, Ştefan Curcă, Ion Pele, Grigore Ion State, Ion Atanasiu, Gavrilă Bogdan, Radu Vlad, Ştefan Georgescu, Ion Trandafir. Unhappy with the passive roles to which they were relegated, Nicoleta contested Codreanu’s conservative view on the position of women within the movement.[58] By instilling to her female fellow Legionaries a martial ethos, conducting paramilitary instruction and physical exercises followed by marches in the green uniform, Nicoleta assumed a more masculine role for the Legion’s sisters Once she assumed charge of the feminine section, the Legionary sisters were entrusted with establishing a communication channel within the movement, especially with the Legionary leaders imprisoned in various detention centres.[59] Nicoleta’s girls were responsible for the personal safety of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, acting as the Captain’s personal bodyguards by keeping a watch over those who came close of their leader.[60] In times of unrest, when rumours were spread of a possible attack on the Legion’s headquarters, female students joined their male counterparts in defending the building. Born in Thessaloniki into a family of Aromanians who was in the front line of colonizing the Southern Dobruja, 63 ‘Programul transportării la Predeal a urnelor cu cenușa camarazilor uciși la București,’ Buna Vestire: Ziar ziar liber luptă și doctrină românescă, no. 38, October 27, 1940; ‘Predealul Cetatea Martirilor,’ Cuvântul: Ziar al Mișcării Legionare, no. 16, October 29, 1940
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