The development of the feminist movement in the Mashriq during the last century is reflected artistically by some contemporary Arab women authors who deploy literature as a political instrument. Besides their feminist calls for gender equality and social transformation, these writers let a daring cry for women's liberation in relation to national liberation. Furthermore, they gradually moved away from the typical representations of women as subverted and segregated to portraying women as active participants in social and national movements while addressing the status of other sexual and ethnic minorities. Hence, times of national crises bring another dimension to the literary feminist discourse in the Mashriq: the deconstruction of the social order and traditional gender roles allow these women authors to gradually break through their subordinate status and express their feminist consciousness. Likewise, times of war provide an outlet for other sexual minorities, that is, homosexuals. On this topic, Huda Barakat (b. 1952), a contemporary Lebanese woman novelist, utilises the figure of gay men to explore the dynamics between masculinities and femininities against the backdrop of the Lebanese civil war. Barakat, in "The Stone of Laughter" (1994), masterfully examines how women and gay men--as subordinate genders--react to, grow within, and rebel against other forms of 'hegemonic masculinity' (to borrow Connell's term) during times of war. This paper investigates the construction of gender identity during the Lebanese civil war through a detailed literary analysis of Barakat's "The Stone of Laughter". It examines the literary representations of women and gay men in order to test feminist critique and the manipulation of homosexuality to illustrate feminist calls in disguise. It explores the intertwining representation of both women and gay men as sexual minorities against the unravelling Lebanese social and national structure. Subsequently, this paper argues that forms of subordinate masculinities and femininities can be challenged, deconstructed, and reconstructed during national crises. Accordingly, it suggests that, during times of war, the emerging feminist consciousness embraces other subverted sexual minorities and simultaneously represents their struggle against predominant forms of sexuality.