Rosie the Riveter: Pinup and American Icon

"All the day long,
Whether rain or shine
She’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history,
Working for victory
Rosie the Riveter"

We took the term "Rosie the Riveter" from the above song by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, and from there we've firmly established Rosie as a generational, gender, and cultural icon. World War II, to put it simply and stupidly, changed more than just the boundaries in Europe. It changed gender boundaries, too. When widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force, women stepped into mechanical, wrench-wielding, dirty jobs; they made up 65% of the labor in the aircraft industry from 1940-1945. Rosie herself may not have existed as anything more than a propaganda tool. However, real-life Rosie's changed the shape of America -- they proved that not only could a woman do a man's job, but they could do it well. 

The reason why I am talking about this is because Rosie the Riveter was a pinup. Oh, yes, she is now a symbol of female empowerment, but originally she was the creation of some real life Don Draper (on a side note, how yummy is Jon Hamm?) who was working with the government and begrudgingly acknowledged that America needed women to work. The most famous Rosie has her looking tough -- but other adverts are hardly distinguishable from a Vargas girl. The fact that our grandmothers (or great-grandmothers) took up their tools and contributed to the war effort while looking sassy in lipstick and curls is inspirational. If they can do it, why can't we? Brains and beauty! They wouldn't trade in their femininity for anything, not even a little thing like World War 2.

I think it's sad that a decent percentage of the female workforce regards looking good or being feminine as either a detriment or a waste of time. My mother, who I love, is not exactly a glamour goddess. She never was. I didn't learn how to do makeup from her at all -- she's 48 and still asking me for tips. I recall, when I was younger, she worked a job that was very mechanical, assembly-line, in nature. Due to the fact that she 1) managed to shower, 2) wore clothing that was clean and intact, and 3) put on a minimal amount of makeup, quite frequently she would complain about not being treated like she knew what she was doing. And not by the men...but by the women she worked with. We're discriminating against ourselves, ladies! What kind of age is this where, if a woman looks good at the workplace, we try to knock her down? Why do we have to downplay our femininity, even to our own gender, to be taken seriously? And what do we accomplish by tearing each other down for this?

It's time we stepped up our game. There is no shame in looking good at your job, no matter what that job may be. We can be good at our jobs. We can also look good at our jobs. We CAN do it all!

Tomorrow, being on the military tangent (I've been watching too much Captain America -- Hayley Atwell is STUNNING), I hope to talk about the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. I know the acronym has other connotations, but these women not only defied their gender before the war by obtaining a pilots license, but they participated in the war effort the same way the men did and were completely ignored by our government until 1977. 

Recognize this Rosie? It's Marilyn Monroe!