Rosie the Riveter, the documentary

I enjoyed the documentary on Rosie the Riveter. I learned alot about how the women stepped in for the men in all sorts of positions around the country. As the men took off for war after the attack on Pearl Harbor the women had to go into the industries and factories and work in the mens' place. The lady from New York and Detroit had alot to say about their jobs during and after the war and when they started their families. The lady from Detroit was black and could only get jobs in post war in places like washing dishes and working in laundry. All the Rosie the Riveters during war time helped build machinery and mass produced weapons for war. They didn't get paid much money but they all did their duty and go to work to help the war effort. After the war with all the men coming home from overseas the women went from the factories and industries to being the house wives and new mothers. The baby boom happened right after the war. All the young soldiers coming home from war wanted to start families. And so they did with many Rosies' and other young girls.

CLASS MOVIE ROSIE THE RIVETER

Movie Rosie the riveter


This movie truly defined the role women were supposed to take in the work force. Women's work in factories during the war was essential. They were recruited with images of strong women like Rosie the Riveter. As we learned in class images are very powerful and persuasive. As we learned from creel and others symbols are extremely successful as well. With Rosie she portrayed a women that was extremely appealing and that every one wanted to resemble. Not only did Rosie persuade women to go into this different work force she also commemorates and interprets the important contributions that women made to the war effort as increasing numbers of men joined the armed services. I didn’t know whether to consider how the women’s jobs were contrasted to jobs at home a stereotype or just the truth. Ex. Contrasting welding to sewing. It was also pretty unjust that the black women were earning less than the white women for doing the same job. There was a great deal of racism that took place in that time period. But I believe this movement; with the woman’s work force was the beginning of change. The blacks worked with the whites and the women worked with the men side by side. People may not have been treated equally but many vital points were proven. The women going to work in the work force proved they were just as qualified and talented as men, if not better. If the propaganda never were created women wouldn’t have been persuaded and would have kept to their norm. This would have been a negative thing because not only were they needed because of the war; I believed they paved a positive future for equality of women. Even thought they were disappointed that they had to return to their old duties when the war was over. It was a gradual change that took time.

Typecasting and Rosie The Riveter

Rosie the Riveter was a classic case of typecasting dring World War II. Rosie was an attractive idea to get women to want to work in war. She showed women working hard for their country and was shown everywhere. Rosie was created by propaganda. She was not a real person. Characters are created by the media to help people see themselves in many much needed roles. This is done in hopes that when people see themselves in these roles they will choose to go ahead and get involved. Rosie wasn't the only case of this. Cartoons such as looney toons carried all kinds of war references. An example of this include the classic "Swing-shift" Cinderella

rosie the riveter

i thought the film was a very real view into what life was like for the woman during the war. i think what troubled me the most was the amount of racism that was continuously prevalent in the workforce. what bothered me further was the way women were viewed. even though they were working and doing for themselves, employers made it very clear that the women were only there because the men were at war. And it was stated that these females will go back to where "they belong" after the men returned which is at home with the children. the social roles were very rigid up until that point. the females didnt even make as much as the men did in first place and the black women earned even less. It was much to my dismay to see the struggles that women of color had to endure at that time. It makes me wonder what my grandmother must have through because my grandfather was a WWII veteran. it must have been extremely difficult.

Rosie the Riveter and social control through manipulation

When I saw this film it shed some new light on the concept of social control. THe prevailing belief of the day was that women were incapable of independence. It had supposedly been "scientifically"proven that they were the weaker sex physically and mentally, and therefore needed the protection and dominance of the male. Women were supposedly built soley for procreation and to maintain the domestic front. Then comes war which takes away men and forces women to take on male roles in addition to their feminine roles.

"Scientific" findings went out the window when women became necessary to keep production going for the war. Women became strong, capable beings who needed to serve their country. When the men came home, they were suddenly weak again and belonged in the home.

The powers that be manipulate us more than we are conscious of. Throughout history, women have continually been oppressed in several societies, yet they've always somehow proven themselves worthy of equality....but still manipulated back into the homes so men can maintain their dominance.

Comments on Rosie the Riveter

On the movie, Rosie the Riveter talked about the role of women during the war time. Once Pearl Harbor was bombed and America went the war, the towns and cities were lacking men. Jobs needed to be filled and there was no one to take them. America sent out mass amounts of propaganda to convince women to take the jobs of men. Women who wanted to work went through a quick learning period then push right into the work force. Women were now doing the work of men with jobs such as, welding, building aircrafts, and all kinds of factory work.

Once the war was over the propaganda of nation completely changed. It changed from pushing women into the world field to pushing them out. Men came home and was promised jobs but the women who had these jobs had formed unions and were really enjoying their new roles in American society. The propaganda was now to promote the woman's role in the home. They used items like children were growning up bad without the woman in the home and the men needed to be taken care of. The women of the nation were basically used to replace men and then push aside when the men returned.

Rumors of War

Rumors of War

“It is not us, we are not coward; it is the enemy-- they are too strong.”

During a period of time in a war when neither side can be sure of the final success, rumors will get out from the lower part of the military automatically--when there is something out of expect and it is something bad, there should be somebody responsible for it; if there is no one coming out to claim the responsibility, rumors will make out someone.
That explains some of the rumors about espionage during all sorts of war--to blame someone nobody actually have seen or know.
Fussell said in this chapter that "rumors of espionage, sabotage, and treason are universally popular, both because they make the war interesting and because they help explain why one's own side is not wining it faster."
This method has a lot of advantages: 1) People can complain and blame others without hurting anybody on their side. 2) This can be the eternal explanation for every frustration people suffered during the war. 3) Nobody will really try to solve those problems mentioned in these blames, simply because there is no such a problem or such problems are everywhere and are impossible to solve.
Nobody want to accept that they are coward, but when they really behave cowardly, it is very natural for them for exaggerate the ability of their enemy and their brutality.
Fussell describe the behaviors of soldiers landing at Salerno in September 1943. He mentioned that soldiers all claim that Germans knew they will come and even use loudspeaker to shout "Come on in. We've got you covered." However, that turned out to be beachmasters arrived earlier to encourage the coxswains of the gingerly approaching landing craft.
In this way, it is not hard to explain all the fancy stories from the battle field.
When soldiers first get into battlefield, their former romantic idea about war will be totally destroyed. They will no longer be fighting for democracy or liberty or anything ideological, instead, they fight for the survival of themselves and their comrades.
When they come to that stage, it is very natural for them to think themselves generally as a group of soldiers instead of a group different individual. And they naturally want their new identity can get them something rewarding.
This can easily explain all of the stories mentioned in this chapter about “Ford” and all those rumors about how to get a "Free Ford".
Ironically, at the same time, Germans were doing the same thing by making Germans believe that every Germany soldier will be able to have a Volkswagen after the war.

The power of images

Propaganda is all about images and symbols. All those images we see through various kinds of channels:advertising, film, radio, magazines, or even fictions are in content highly complecated and selective. Behind every exterior display of the image there are hidden lines open to every reader's explanation except the core concept that has prevailing influence on the whole audience.
Images help fashion perspectives and create characters for everyone to identify with. no matter how they are invented, either from the twisting of the original ones or integrating of kinds of sources, they all convey identities for people to find themselves within. Actually, everybody contributes to part of the image, and when these parts come together, they are combined to have complexity of contents and general influential power. On the other hand, the parts selected have to be of the character that can strengthen the effect desired, in other words, they have to be within certain ideological framework compatible with specific conditions. They see the world through "slanted eyes", and we see it from the creation of them.
Images are the strongest voice of the epoch which can be seen from the development of american icons. When capable women that replaced the positions of wartime men were portrayed as icons during WWII, those who have sexuality and comic naivete in the 1950s were subsequently the icongraphic deliverer, while today we see the burgeoning of "American Idol" or "Dance with the Stars" through which process so called "american dreams" are realized. People need the images of icons to pinge on, to look after, to desire for and to work hard towards, for that's the goal of life. We are now in the midst of an unprecedented identity crisis, while most of us don't know who we are and where we want to go because of the complexity of the world. Under this circumstance, this generation can be the generation that can be most easily influenced.

Images of Women in World War II

Maureen Honey's article Remembering Rosie:Advertising Images of Women in World War II is an interesting example of propaganda at work. This article focuses the changing images of women in World War II. It is interesting to see that at the start of the war by the direction of the OWI propaganda was aimed at getting women into the workforce to help keep the economy stable with images and advertising bombarding newspapers, and magazines depicting Rosie the Riveter, the woman at work. Women were told that they were capable of doing work that was non-domestic, work typically done by men for example operating heavy machinery and working in factories, yet this all changed towards the end of the war when advertising came to declare that the proper place for the woman was back in the home. Propaganda at the end of the war aimed to direct women back to the home and men back to work, and many women believed the new direction of propaganda and left the work place. In such a short period in time women advanced by the cause of propaganda and then propaganda changed its direction to take that all away.