Recommended
More Related Content
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Featured
Featured (20)
CIU211 - Dialectic Inquiry
- 1. CIU211 – Dialectic Inquiry Sex, gender & sexuality
- 2. Topic: Rosie the Riveter is not really a feminist
- 4. Who was the “real” Rosie the Riveter? http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history/videos/ask-history-rosie-the-riveter
- 5. “She is ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ with movie-star looks, hair pulled up in a colourful bandana, sleeves rolled up high, ready to take rivet gun in hand. Everyone knows Rosie. She had not worked before the war. With ‘her man away fighting,’ however and ‘not much else to do,’ she was cajoled into taking one of those dirty wartime jobs—out of patriotism or boredom (or both). Attired in new-found overalls and bandana, she riveted away for the duration of the war, dreaming of a time when she could return to her home and tend to her domestic chores.” Sheila Tobias, Faces of Feminism
- 7. • Created for the Oldsmobile Division of GMC in 1942 • Message refers to the unification of labour and management in the workforce • Producing products that will help their fellow Americans win the war. • The “we” used has a much less empowering • Make no reference to women but instead to the company as a whole.
- 9. • Using a feminist icon to promote traditional “women’s work”. • However using a woman in an ad for house work products is what every other ad for household products does. • Using Rosie to do something entirely unrelated to actual progress for women?
- 10. “I think it’s a fascinating example of how easy it is to mythologize things from the past, to view them through the lens of modern innovation and belief structures,” Sarah Berkes
- 11. References • History.com. Rosie the Riveter. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/rosie-t he-riveter • Whitefield-Madrano, Autumn. . We Can Do It!: Rosie the Swiffer. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-beheld/we-can-d o-it-rosie-the-swiffer/ • Tobias, Sheila. Faces of Feminism: An Activist’s Reflections on the Women’s • Movement. Westview Press: March, 1998. • Berkes, Sarah. History of Design. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.fidmdigitalarts.com/the-history-of-the -famous-rosie- the-riveter-poster-as-told-by-fidm-g raphic-design-student/ • Katheleen L. Endres, “Rosie the Riveter,” in American Icons: An Encyclopedia of the People, Places and Things That Hae Shaped Our Culture, vol.3, ed. Dennis R. Hall and Susan Grove Hall. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006), 601. • Doyle, Jack. (2009). Rosie the Riveter. Retrieved from http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/rosie-the-rive ter-1941-1945/ Images • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://www.sarahsundin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WOW-poster1.jpg • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from https://s-media-cache- ak0.pinimg.com/236x/1c/42/1f/1c421fbd9e93bf76af67cebbc9de5bb4.jpg • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/TOGETHER_WE_CAN_DO_IT_- _KEEP_%60EM_FIRING_-_NARA_-_515856.jpg • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Any_Questions_About_Your_Work_- _poster.jpg • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/We_Can_Do_It!.jpg • Howard Miller, J. [Poster]. Retrieved from https://americangallery.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/make-today-a-safe-day.jpg • Procter & Gamble. [Advertisement]. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-blog/blogs/rosie-swiffer-hed- 2013.jpg
Editor's Notes
- Today I will be talking about how Rosie the Riveter is not really a feminist.
- Today I will be talking about how Rosie the Riveter is not really a feminist.
- The now iconic J. Howard Miller “We Can Do It!” poster associated with Rosie the Riveter and the movement of woman in the industrial workforce during World War II is widely seen as a symbol of women’s empowerment and the beginning of gender revolutions that occurred during the 1940’s. However the poster’s original intention was to promote workplace unity and keep labourers from striking. Which begs the question, how it can equally become an icon for female empowerment using a character that was created after the posters had been removed from factory walls.
- First of all, who is the “real” Rosie Riveter?
- Rosie began as propaganda by the United States government, with the aim of telling women they could take over “men’s work” while they were fighting in WWII, and still stay appealingly feminine. Which this poster conveys, although Rosie is flexing her muscles and wearing a work shirt, she has a face full of makeup, her hair is neatly styled underneath the iconic bandana and her feminie waist line is visible. But Rosie wasn’t created because of gender equality; she was created out of necessity.
- Although the slogan “We Can Do It!” seems like an empowering, defiant message for women, it was not the first poster for this slogan to be used. J. Howard Miller created 42 posters for the Westinghouse Company’s War Production Coordinating Committee, Rosie being one of them.
- The poster created for the Oldsmobile Division of GMC in 1942, showed two men’s arms, with their hands curled into fists, and a second hand pulling back the sleeves. One arm wearing a blue shirt labelled “labour”, and the other a white shirt labelled “management”. The slogan above reading “Together We Can Do It!”. Underneath the arms has a picture of a small tank and an army craft with the words “Keep ‘Em Firing” between two bands of patriarchal strips. This message refers to the unification of labour and management in the workforce to keep factories running smoothly and producing products that will help their fellow Americans win the war. The “we” used in this poster has a much less empowering meaning as it does not make any reference to women but instead to the company as a whole.
- The Rosie the Riveter “We Can Do It!” poster didn’t become known until the mid-1980’s, as it was used by the feminist movement being adopted as a feminist spokesperson. Consequently, the image that appeared to capture a determined, confident American woman enlisting for war reproduction was repurposed for a movement where the phrase “We Can Do It!” symbolised female empowerment.
- In 2013, Procter & Gamble used a Rosie the Riveter-style image to advertise their line of disposable mopping and sweeping products. It caused a lot of back lash as people were not happy about them using a feminist icon to promote traditional “women’s work”. Not to say I agree with their use of the ad, however using a woman in an ad for house work products is what every other ad for household products does. Using Rosie to do something entirely unrelated to actual progress for women? That’s pretty much what Rosie was invented for.
- Considering the popularity of this image, and how it has become such an iconic figure for female empowerment, it is hard to imagine that the image wasn’t even known of at the time of its creation. Rosie the Riveter is a piece of WWII history in America and has transcended multiple generations only to gain more popularity today. Its sole purpose of creation was to promote workplace unity but has come to define the feminist movement and serve as an empowering message to women everywhere.