Leyva 1

Marisol Leyva

Professor Beadle

English 114A

10 May 2017

Rosie the Riveter

In gender roles there are always specific things that everyone believes. For instance, it is

believed that men are supposed to have a job and financially provide a good home, while for

women it is believed that they have to stay home, clean the house, and be submissive while

helping their husbands and kids (if any) on anything they need. There are even advertisements

and images that lead people to think the way they do about some differences there might be in

heterosexual relationships. The visual text of Rosie the Riveter We Can Do It! has been made

into an advertisement inspired by the original one but with some editing done to it. The edited

version of this advertisement has been made to give a different meaning and to confuse people.

This visual text makes a different argument because it no longer implies that Rosie is a strong

woman that could do anything, but instead shows women belong at home cleaning while men

have to be the ones out there making money.

For those who are not familiar with the original visual text of Rosie the Riveter, here is

some background information. The image has a woman showing her muscles to demonstrate that

she has such power as men do. Rosie is wearing clothing that is meant for men to wear, and has

the words We Can Do It! which demonstrates that the image is intentionally focused on

grabbing women's attention to give them strength to do anything they want.

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The visual text of GET THE POWER. The power to clean anything is an edited version

of We Can Do It! of Rosie the Riveter. This edited version has created many new meanings. In

this edited version of Rosie the Riveter, Rosie is presented more feminine. Unlike the original

image, the edited one has Rosie with darker red lips and with red nail polish on her fingernails

which suggests that women are only useful for cleaning and pleasing their husbands with their

sexual needs since the color red has been seen as a sign of passion. In the original picture of

Rosie, she is shown with a more tough and angry face while in the edited image she is looking

more sweet and calm. This is implying that women have to be sweet and kind to their husbands

no matter what and always look pretty since the red fingernails and the red lips show that even if

you are cleaning you have to look at your best. Also another detail about this edited image is that

we are able to notice that Rosie has a ring on her ring finger which highly demonstrates that

she is shown as a married women unlike the original image that has no ring in any finger or in

any place else of the image. This is demonstrating that a woman has to be married to be able to

be someone in life so that no one can judge you and believe anything else about you according to

society.

As described before, women are seen as sexual objects by men. This can be demonstrated

because there was a study that was made, Changing men's behaviour can improve women's

health. A new report finds that innovative programmes around the world are helping men to

change sexist, risky and violent behaviour that harms the health and well-being of women and

the communities in which they live. This study was about people ages between 15 and 26 that

were put into two different groups. One of the groups was to inform the people that violence

against women was not something good and the other group was to inform the people of safe
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sex. The first group was a success since most men agreed that now their perspective towards

women was not the same and now they want to treat them good. While participants in the group

that did the three-hour safe sex course did not develop such insights or change their

behaviour(Keeton). This implies that no matter what, women are still seen as sexual objects just

as Rosie is shown in the visual text as a married woman who has to do as her husband says.

As Judith Lorber describes in her essay, Night to His Day: The Social Construction of

Gender she talks about roles that have changed and some that have stayed the same. Fathers

are taking care of little children, girls and boys are wearing unisex clothing and getting the same

education, women and men are working at the same jobs (21). These are some examples of the

things that have changed but for some reason men are still afraid to help out or at least to accept

that they help clean. Cleaning is still one of those things that has not changed because if a man is

cleaning it means that the woman is the boss in the house. Instead of the woman doing as a

man says the woman is the one in charge making the man seen as not a man (based on what the

image of a man is for society). Aaron Devor, not completely agreeing, describes in his essay,

Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, how women also need some

kind of affection from their husbands, some kind of help. Devor quotes in his essay, from the

reading The Gender Dysphoria Syndromes: A Position Statement on So-Called

Transsexualism by Jon K. Meyer and John E. Hoopes, that according to the traditional

formulation, femininity would result in warm and continuing relationships with men, a sense of

maternity, interest in caring for children, and the capacity to work productively and continuously

in female occupations (40). This has shown that women would be more caring and feel more

productive if men would do some kind of caring for women too.

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There is way more to women being mistreated and this could go on and on with more

information but there is also some knowledge about women not being alone on this

mistreatment. For example Kate Cummings did an essay in the Encyclopedia of American

Studies web page in which she says "Unnatural was the demonstrably punitive epithet hurled at

men who worked from their homes, at heterosexual women who chose not to reproduce, and at

lesbians and gays whose sexuality violated the separate-spheres order and its complementary

sexist mandate. This is saying that not only women have to follow the given roles to be able to

be a normal person for society, but also other people have to go through all this gender role

situation.

Before anything, as mentioned before, we know that Rosie is shown as a married woman

because she has a ring on her ring finger. With this information we are able to argue that in

general Rosie is seen on the edited visual text as a weak and useless women. For those who may

believe Rosie is not shown this way, think about the color red. Why did the creators of the image

decide to do the color of the nails red and not any other color such as purple or blue? Well this is

because people know that red is a sign for passion which means that they have to satisfy their

husbands sexual needs. Why do they show her with less arm muscle than how she originally

was? Because now they are showing her as weak and only capable of cleaning. Why is she

illustrated with a peaceful face expression with no anger as it is shown in the original Rosie the

Riveter? Because now as the wife she is, she must be nice and understanding towards their

husband.

The image of Rosie the Riveter has a very powerful meaning just by itself. This image

gives us the understanding that women are strong too. That women can do what men do too
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because based on the background information of this image, it was actually made by the army to

give women some motivation to be themselves and fight for what they want. The edited image

then, is making a totally different suggestion of having women at home cleaning because that is

what they are all good for only. All the motivation the original image of Rosie the Riveter gives

to a woman, it is then taken away by the edited version leaving women out and suggesting to just

leave things how they have been and to not let women do as they wish. In reality women just

have to fight for their dreams and forget about an edited Rosie the Riveter and focus on the

original one because after all she is the one that is supposed to be stronger and caring at the same

time.
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Citation Page

Cummings, Kate. Gender and Culture, Encyclopedia of American Studies, Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2017, http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/view?aid=506 .

Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, Composing

Gender, edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford St. Martins, 2014, pp.

35-43.

Keeton, Claire. "Changing men's behaviour can improve women's health. A new report finds that

innovative programmes around the world are helping men to change sexist, risky and

violent behaviour that harms the health and well-being of women and the communities in

which they live." Bulletin of the World Health Organization, July 2007, p. 505+.

Expanded Academic ASAP,

libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=EAIM&sw=w&u=csunor

thridge&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA180100342&it=r&asid=1998c861a135f73940f2b8deea

933e9c.

Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender Composing Gender,

edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford St. Martins, 2014, pp. 19-33.