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In a post-feminist age, one could
argue that there should also be a chapter devoted
to the way that men were depicted and appealed to
in posters, but these are generally not relevant to
the Home Front, with most posters aimed at men designed
to get them to enlist in the services. With the war
no longer fought in faraway territories, women were
involved firsthand in warfare for the first time.
The Government tried to appeal to women in many different
ways in their posters.
During the war
women encountered impossibly incompatible representations
of themselves: from being inessential to national
identity, to being central to it, to threatening
to it; from being patient wives to mobile women;
from being painted ladies to military beauties
[Footnote 1].
The ideas of the
First World War still held sway in some ways, as through
the 1920s and 1930s the woman's expected place was
still the home, although there had been growing acceptance
that there were roles for women in the workplace.
It was not until there was a need for employed men
in the armed forces that women were actually appealed
to in the armed support services, or in the factories.
The majority of posters still relied upon images of
women that emphasised their domestic, passive, maternal,
and supportive roles, images that relied upon - and
were rooted in - the orthodoxies of contemporary gender
relations. We see the growing use of such phrases
as 'The Kitchen Front', designed to make the woman
feel that she was 'doing her bit' in the home.
In America,
women were encouraged to join the services by a campaign
on the theme 'Release a Man for Combat', which backfired
as it "drew attention to the fact that if wives and
girlfriends enlisted they might be sending their own
or someone else's loved one to risk death at the battlefront"
[Footnote 2]. M-O claimed that in Britain, the effect
was the opposite, as a poster with an illustration
of a soldier, captioned 'IF ONLY MORE WOMEN
WOULD HELP', was successful in increasing the pressure
upon women to do war work, although it was only successful
because it was well timed, unlike "Many government
campaigns [which] attempted to operate in a pressure-less
vacuum." [Footnote 3] After 2 December, 1941, when
conscription for women was introduced, posters were
more concerned with the choice between occupations
for women, rather than trying to persuade them to
work at all.
The government
faced a dilemma after the mobilisation of women as
it was necessary to represent women as patriotic,
both in the home, and in the workplace. Although a
lack of workers meant that women were necessary in
the factories, it was also wished that the war would
not interfere with normal domestic arrangements, but
"producers of official propaganda dodged this dilemma
by separating the woman worker and the housewife"
[Footnote 4]. The young, single woman was concentrated
upon as the ideal recruit for work, pictured in model
patriotic roles (Figure 42), whilst mothers
and housewives were shown in domestic settings, wearing
frilly pinafores (Figure 43), urged
to 'Make-do- and-Mend' as their patriotic duty [Footnote
5]. Posters tended to ignore the fact that many women
fitted into both spheres.
Posters needed not
only to make jobs appear attractive to women, but
enable them to identify with the images contained
in the posters. Existing members of the ATS and Thelma
Cazalet criticised Abram Game's 'ATS' poster (Figure 44) for over-emphasising
the glamour of service life, and it was a consequently
withdrawn for being 'too glamorous', replaced with
a photo of a serving ATS member (Figure 45), which was believed
to lend an air of authenticity to the poster. The
withdrawal of the poster suggests that the government
felt that the glamorised images would not attract
real women, although an MoI official claimed that
the poster was not aimed at attracting glamorous girls,
and couldn't understand the objection to an A.T.S.
girl being shown as smart and attractive. "One would
think from this type of criticism that every effort
should be made to show that the service was for the
most unattractive and un-enterprising women!" [Footnote
6]
The practice of using
idealistic images obviously presented problems for
some, such as the farmers who had workers turn up
to 'Lend a Hand on the Land' (Figure 46) in their
summer holidays: "Girls turned up dressed as for a
picnic and were incapacitated in a matter of hours."
[Footnote 7] Idyllic images of the countryside translated
into smelly and hard work. The Woman's Land Army were
similarly idealistic (Figure 47), presenting a
far more glamorous and clean picture than the reality.
It was not only in the countryside that the realities
were mis-represented. Factory workers were liable
to find their machines taken over for the morning
by a troop of glamorous women in ministry-approved
war worker outfits, who performed for the benefit
of the cameras and were subsequently used to illustrate
the mobilisation of women. [Footnote 8]
Allied propaganda
spoke directly about and to the servicemen's fear
of betrayal. Posters enjoining silence as a protection
against spies implied that women's talk would kill
fighting men. Women are pictured as "irresponsible
in their garrulity" (Figure 24), and
as "sinister in their silence" (Figure 48) [Footnote 9].
It was felt to be very important to make people realise
their responsibility as
the anti-gossip
campaign will never be as effective as it should
be unless everyone in the country realises that
it is not necessary to be an out-and-out 'long-tongued
babbling gossip' to be, potentially, one of the
silly asses in the cartoons, jabbering away in
public places. [Footnote 10]
Fougasse was felt
to be very effective as "his victims laugh even while
they see themselves as Fougasse sees them" [Footnote
11]. (Figures 18 and 24)
The most famous poster
of the 'Keep mum, she's not so dumb!' series, designed
for the officers' messes, contained a beautiful woman
known as 'Olga' (Figure 48), although there
were others produced aimed at lower ranks ( Figures 49 , 50 & 51 ), with the slogan
used in other national campaigns. 'Olga' is presented
as a 'femme fatale', a glamorous vamp, a spy whose
charms will endanger national security. It is an idea
that is repeated in 'Don't tell Aunty and Uncle' (
Figure 52 ), with a young, apparently
naked woman, evidently intent on gaining information,
and again in A maiden loved; an idle word; a comrade
lost; and Adolf served ( Figure 53 ) praised as presenting
a "complete story in twelve words, full of pep and
punch and straight to the point" [Footnote 12]. Such
an image popular in many countries, although Lant
claims that such images were really only used in Britain
before it was realised what a shortage of "manpower"
there was going to be [Footnote 13].
Dr Edith Summerskill
complained that the 'Keep Mum, She's not so dumb'
series was degrading to women as housework should
be deemed to be an economic contribution to family
life [Footnote 14]. Indeed, M-O found that the posters
did not really appeal to women, as most did not feel
(consciously) that they were being kept, and were
"unable to think of themselves in a situation where
they would 'BE LIKE DAD'", although women were more
commonly felt to be stimulated by joke appeals [Footnote
15]. M-O found that the pun in the slogan was lost
upon many in the working class, whilst those in the
middle classes felt that the slogan was undignified,
and most did not call their parents 'Dad' and 'Mum'
anyway [Footnote 16]. M-O felt that the dis-illusionment
with government campaigns and slogans in general which
followed the failed 'Silent Column' ( Figure 54 ) had also lent
an antagonistic effect to any new campaign dealing
with the issue of careless talk [Footnote 17].
Women were seen as
danger as they could infect fighting men with venereal
disease (VD). Reginald Mount's "Hello boy friend,
coming my way" ( Figure 55 ) shows the
feminine allure of the veiled hat and the 'vaginal
flower' which would "lure soldiers to dissolution
and death", signified by the skull of the woman [Footnote
18]. Note that virginal fictional heroines also wore
such hats, and that it was the text 'the easy girl-friend'
that lent the 'sensual connotations' [Footnote 19].
Its effect upon the innocent bride ( Figure 56 ) was designed to make
men feel guilty about their free and easy ways, whilst
women were made to feel guilty about the effect that
VD could have upon their children ( Figure 57 ).
The very fact that
posters about VD could be put up is significant as
although it was recognised that war led to an increase
in VD, the British government generally tried to avoid
the issue, with the 1916 Venereal Diseases Act, which
made it slander to imply that anyone was infected
with VD, still in force [Footnote 20]. However the
VD rates hit such epidemic proportions that in October
1942 a campaign was finally begun [Footnote 21]; its
purpose to make the public aware of the symptoms of
the disease, and the treatment available. It had been
feared that the public would be squeamish about such
issues, but a survey revealed that ninety per-cent
of the public approved of the posters that were designed
to shock [Footnote 22], and we have to take into account
the fact that between the wars, advertising about
bodily functions had become a normal occurrence.
Kirkham argued that
there "was no 'masculinisation' of women's body shape"
[Footnote 23] during the war, and that the 'New Look',
with the small waist, and an emphasis upon the bust,
associated with post-war fashion, was also fashionable
in war-time, when it was seen as part of the female
duty to remain feminine: "beauty as duty ... conveyed
something of the stiff upper lip associated with the
British upper classes" [Footnote 24]. Consider the
difference between Figure 58 and 59 , where
the first picture appears to have been rejected due
to the masculine appearance of the woman. With the
government attempting to persuade women to wear their
hair in certain ways, in posters, hair styles are
presented only as those which were the most sensible
( Figure 60 ). Generally
only those in a fully domestic situation, or one of
the glamorous spies mentioned, would be shown with
long hair [Footnote 25].
Figure 61 was rejected, and
it was suggested that this poster would have deterred
mothers from handing their children over [Footnote
26], although IWM PST 0137, containing a very similar
picture was accepted for publication. Both posters
were entitled 'Caring for evacuees is a national service'
and although there was legislation in place to make
people become hosts to evacuees, this was generally
regarded as unsatisfactory, and so it was left to
volunteers, and to the discretion of billeting officers
[Footnote 27]. In Figure 62 we get
an impression of evacuation as a happy, healthy experience,
in the joyous countryside with happy, willing hosts.
Having looked at
all three case studies, we can see whether the government
really did consider, and use, propaganda, specifically
posters, as the fourth armament.
Footnotes:
If you wish to cite from this page,
please use the following citation:
Lewis, R.M., 'Chapter 7: Images
for, and of, Women in Posters, Undergraduate Thesis:
The planning, design and reception of British
home front propaganda posters of the Second World
War', <http://www.ww2poster.co.uk/research_project/ugrad/dissimagesforofwomen.htm>,
written April 1997, accessed Enter Date
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The Direct Appeal
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Conclusion
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