Victims, perpetrators and bystanders: reconceptualising head shaving in Liberation France and Civil War Spain as gender-based violence

This thesis analyses the historical practice of female head shaving, using the femmes tondues during the Liberation of France and the mujeres rapadas during the Spanish Civil War as comparative case studies. By bringing these cases into dialogue, it uncovers the roles, actions and perspectives of the key actors and it identifies the shared historical discourses surrounding this gendered phenomenon in France and Spain. In particular, this study investigates why head shaving has primarily been understood as gendered punishment rather than as a form of gender-based violence in French and Spanish historiography, and it examines the ambivalent place this historical practice holds in the national memory of the two countries. It focuses not only on the female victims of head shaving, but also on the male perpetrators who led outbreaks, and the bystanders who witnessed these incidents. The research reveals that, despite facing undeniably violent and humiliating practices, the femmes tondues and the mujeres rapadas have a complicated relationship with victimhood due to enduring patriarchal discourses of female treachery and national disloyalty. Furthermore, while French resisters and Spanish nationalists were perpetrators, this framing is complicated by their role as victors, and national narratives of Resistance heroism in France and narratives of amnesty and reconciliation in Spain have obscured the extent of violence enacted. Additionally, it demonstrates that the two historical case studies are linked by comparative themes of violent post- conflict purges and social contestation regarding the role of women in post-war society, which encouraged the acquiescence of bystanders in acts of head shaving. Within this nexus, bystanders often held an important role in these historical outbreaks, but their involvement is still shrouded in shame and discomfort in France and Spain. By re-reading historical sources and reconceptualising these two case studies of head shaving through the prism of gender-based violence, this thesis reveals that violence against women during conflict can be justified, minimised and silenced if it conflicts with national narratives