Purring Vaginas and Waggling Penises: Sexting World War I

This chapter analyses the role played by the distinctly explicit language of sexual love that made up their correspondence after their marriage in 1916 when Harry began to serve on the Western Front in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. As this chapter argues, in order to evade the censors, Harry and Gwyneth adopted the personae of Dardanella and Peter, writing as their vagina and penis, in a playful performance of erotic desire which served as a prophylactic against fear and anxiety during the war, and as a means to advance their relationship. It also highlights the way in which sex was deployed as part of their ongoing contest for gender power in their marriage.