Abstract
In October 1936, Australia’s Minister for the Interior, Thomas Paterson, ordered customs officials to bar a married, white British woman travelling with a married army officer from entering Australia. Mabel Freer’s exclusion sparked a media sensation and captured public attention for months. In re-examining the Freer case, this article focuses on questions of morality, respectability and marriage, and how these intertwined with racial identity formation in interwar Australia. Freer’s exclusion struck a chord with the general public, and with women in particular, who condemned Paterson’s action and demanded Freer’s admission. However, while this mobilisation against government overreach successfully challenged the sexual double standard and patriarchal assumptions about marriage and women’s respectability, it simultaneously reinforced the racist logic underpinning the White Australia policy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 437-458 |
| Journal | History Australia |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 13 Aug 2019 |
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The Mrs Freer case revisited : marriage, morality and the state in interwar Australia. / Martens, Jeremy.
In: History Australia, 13.08.2019, p. 437-458.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Mrs Freer case revisited
T2 - marriage, morality and the state in interwar Australia
AU - Martens, Jeremy
PY - 2019/8/13
Y1 - 2019/8/13
N2 - In October 1936, Australia’s Minister for the Interior, Thomas Paterson, ordered customs officials to bar a married, white British woman travelling with a married army officer from entering Australia. Mabel Freer’s exclusion sparked a media sensation and captured public attention for months. In re-examining the Freer case, this article focuses on questions of morality, respectability and marriage, and how these intertwined with racial identity formation in interwar Australia. Freer’s exclusion struck a chord with the general public, and with women in particular, who condemned Paterson’s action and demanded Freer’s admission. However, while this mobilisation against government overreach successfully challenged the sexual double standard and patriarchal assumptions about marriage and women’s respectability, it simultaneously reinforced the racist logic underpinning the White Australia policy.
AB - In October 1936, Australia’s Minister for the Interior, Thomas Paterson, ordered customs officials to bar a married, white British woman travelling with a married army officer from entering Australia. Mabel Freer’s exclusion sparked a media sensation and captured public attention for months. In re-examining the Freer case, this article focuses on questions of morality, respectability and marriage, and how these intertwined with racial identity formation in interwar Australia. Freer’s exclusion struck a chord with the general public, and with women in particular, who condemned Paterson’s action and demanded Freer’s admission. However, while this mobilisation against government overreach successfully challenged the sexual double standard and patriarchal assumptions about marriage and women’s respectability, it simultaneously reinforced the racist logic underpinning the White Australia policy.
KW - 1930s
KW - Australia
KW - gender
KW - Mabel Freer
KW - marriage
KW - Morality
KW - race
KW - respectability
KW - Thomas Paterson
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071925996&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14490854.2019.1636673
DO - 10.1080/14490854.2019.1636673
M3 - Article
SP - 437
EP - 458
JO - History Australia
JF - History Australia
SN - 1449-0854
ER -