Home follows the Kelly family as they negotiate the darker recesses of Marshfield, a once paradisiacal vacation town on the South Shore of Massachusetts that has developed an underbelly all its own. In their search for a sense of belonging, Lynn, and her children, Ghost and Alexis, are left to interrogate their deepest-rooted fears and secrets. Through this lens, we learn the history of both the Kelly family and the town of Marshfield.

This thesis will consider the art and persona of Grayson Perry in relation to ideas of national identity. In particular, it will argue that Perry has been occupied with ideas of class and national identity throughout his career, but that these underlying concerns have often been subsumed, or obfuscated, by the foregrounding of other more obvious aspects of his work, such as his transvestism. At the centre of this thesis is the argument that Perry's vision of England, and the purportedly ambivalent way in which he presents it, functions as a way of negotiating - and repatriating - English national identity at a time of crisis. I want to further argue, however, that this has been complicated by Perry's self-positioning, and I propose that he has cultivated an air of subversion and transgression that has tempered the more affirmative aspects of his work. This half-subversive, half-affirmative stance allows him and his work to resonate with both those critical of the usual institutions of contemporary art - including many sections of the public and certain newspapers, tabloid and broadsheet alike - as well as the institutions themselves. This stance has implications not only for Perry's engagement with contemporary art but for his considerations of national identity as well, enabling an enquiry into, and ultimately a restitution of, 'Englishness' (and, to a lesser extent, 'Britishness'), by framing it within a rhetoric of ambivalence and diminishment rather than overt nationalism, the latter of which would have more problematic associations. Similarly, I want to suggest that it is this stance and its mediatory properties, coupled with his earlier self-positioning and his subtle but consistent foregrounding of domestic and demotic issues of national identity throughout his career, that has made Perry such a popular candidate to take on the task of reinvigorating this identity now.

Sexual misconduct in the Army can range from inappropriate behavior to criminal assault. Despite shared Army values, rigorous ethics training, and oversight mechanisms, cases of Army general officers (senior leaders) perpetuating and/or enabling sexual misconduct to continue. In fact, research and statistics indicate that the frequency and severity of sexual misconduct has not decreased over time (Acosta et al., 2021; Office of People Analytics, Department of Defense, 2021). Existing literature suggests several possible contributing factors, including male-dominated, hyper-masculine military culture (Pang et al., 2021) and senior leaders and oversight committees’ failure to observe and/or enforce standards of ethical behavior (O’Keefe et al., 2020; Pang et al., 2021). This qualitative, embedded case study sought to identify and more deeply understand the organizational culture and oversight factors that foster or contribute to senior leaders’ unethical behavior and sexual misconduct in the Army, despite high levels of discipline and training (Whetham, 2021). The study also explored how female officers navigate the risks of victimization. The study included the following methods and sources: publicly available archival documents, individual interviews with retired senior Army leaders, and individual interviews with active and retired Army soldiers. The study’s findings identified the following as organizational culture and oversight factors: institutional dysfunction and ethical deterioration; discrimination against women, and fear of retaliation; inability of senior leaders to balance professional and personal life; ethical dilemmas and abuse of power; challenges in accountability; corruption and military cover ups; and impunity and injustice in the face of misconduct. The study’s findings identified the following as ways in which female officers attempt to cope and navigate risks: by empowering women in a male-dominated environment; supporting survivors of sexual trauma and ensuring justice. Overall, the findings provide insight into why sexual misconduct thrives and oversight fails in the Army and concludes that more research and advocacy are needed to achieve a new model of oversight that promotes ethical leadership guided by Army values.