This
essay will concentrate on concepts practical in understanding how texts convey
meaning and the cultural ‘work’ they do; in this case focusing on the changing
of a dominant ideology in the United States during the decade of 1935 - 1945. The concepts discussed are that of signs,
texts, codes, context, intertextuality, genre, and discourse. In order to
analyse and discuss these concepts there will be particular focus on three
popular media texts, these being; the lyrics of a pop R&B song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob
Loeb
titled ‘Rosie the Riveter’ (1941), J. Howard Miller’s Westinghouse ‘We Can Do It!’ poster (1942), and Norman Rockwell’s
‘Rosie the Riveter’ which featured on the front page of the Saturday Evening
Post -Memorial Day Issue (1943). These will then be compared to Ferdinand de
Saussure’s theories relating to Semiotics as read in Chandler (2002), Davies et al. (2002), Hall (1980), Kristeva
(1980), Barthes (1977 and 1973), Eco (1973), Lévi-Strauss (1972) as well as
others. Prior to World War II though the cultural division of labor by sex ultimately
positioned men in the workforce and middle-class women in the home,
the beginning of World War II tests this ‘natural’ ideology. Within a decade of
cultural ferment in which in which American writers and artists explored
different way to express their talents in areas such as literature, music,
photography, illustration, the mass media and so forth and it was within this
culture that ‘Rosie the Riveter’ is created.
In the decade preceding World War II, the world experienced a severe
economic crash titled ‘The Great Depression’. While the timing of the effects varied from country to country it is believed
to have originated in the United States (U.S.) with the dramatic collapse of
their stock market prices on October 29, 1929. In early 1933
U.S unemployment peaked at 25%. Bankrupt businesses and families defaulted on
loans, hundreds of thousands of Americans became homeless, and more than 5 000
banks failed. Farming sectors suffered as crop production and prices fell by
approximately 60%, primary sector industries particularly heavy industries were
hardest hit, and construction was virtually halted in many nations. With few
alternate employment sources available both U.S. Presidents Hoover and
Roosevelt approved numerous programs to halt the decline (Pells & Romer
n.d.).
The ‘Work Projects Administration’ (WPA) was a national program in which state and local
governments created public works projects that provided employment for three
million "employables" such as the construction of schools, bridges
and parks. With approximately 10 million unemployed people (and 20 million
people on relief) the WAP was also largely responsible for the
redistribution of food, clothing and housing. The WPA also strongly
believed and endorsed the ideology that husbands and wives should not both be
working as the second person working would take one job away from a
breadwinner. The ‘Civilian Conservation Corps’ began in 1933 and over 3 million unemployed young men were placed
into approximately 2600 work camps where they were put to work constructing
infrastructures such as roads, dams and railroads. This type of employment was
not deemed as appropriate for woman as it was seen as ‘man’s work’ as well as,
again, taking the job away from the breadwinner.
However, contrary to the social and cultural ‘myth’ that a ‘women’s
place is in the home’, a large majority were employed. For example, of the
WPA-employed women in rural Missouri 60% were single, widowed, divorced,
separated or deserted. Of the remaining 40% who were married and residing with
their husbands, 59% of those husbands were permanently or temporarily disabled,
too old to work, unemployed or handicapped. Hence, women were the breadwinners
in many households. While some held positions in nursing, teaching, and menial
administration roles, the majority worked within sewing projects that involved
the production of clothing, bedding, and supplies for orphanages and hospitals
(Howard 1943, cited in Tikkanen n.d.).
Many corporations had contracts with the U.S. government to
produce war equipment for the Allies prior to the nation entering World War II.
However, production significantly increased with the bombing of the U.S. naval
base in Pearl Harbor
(Hawaii) on December 7, 1941 and America's entry into
the war. This event saw the end of the Great Depression and it also shaped
a rapid change in the nation’s priorities and needs. Employment rates dropped
to 10% as substantial war spending doubled the
economy’s growth. In order to capitalise on generous government contracts, business owners (particularly the WPA) increased
their efforts for greater output despite new taxes and a mounting national debt.
In a culture where women believed they best served the war effort
by remaining at home (Campbell1984, p. 216 cited in Sorenson (a) 2004), the WPA and other businesses e.g. the Westinghouse Company’s War Production Coordinating Committee, also operated large media, arts, and literacy projects in which
they mass produced media in the form of songs, posters, and newspaper images. Such
media was used extensively to convey the type of narrative needed to get more
female workers into the workplace.
At a time when new factories were built and shipyards were expanded
the idea of a labour shortage was not a serious consideration and neither was
the concept of hiring women in male dominated occupations. At the beginning of
WW II, 12 million U.S. women (one quarter of the workforce) were already
employed and by the end of the conflict the number had increased to
approximately 18 million (boosted to one third). The majority of women worked
in traditionally female occupations e.g. the clerical and administration
sectors), while some 3 million women worked in war factories. However, as
companies began signing large, profitable contracts, men were leaving to serve on
the frontline; hiring female workers became a dominant concept. Corporations
recruited women just graduating from high school. Half of the women who held
such jobs were minority and lower-class women already in the workplace,
changing from lower-paying conventional female jobs to higher-paying factory
jobs (Tikkanen n.d.).
Ultimately, the government was not satisfied with the women’s
response to gain employment and launched a massive campaign to tempt
women into work as well as ‘sell’ the importance of the war effort (Rupp 1978,
p. 98, cited in Sorensen (a) 2004). Eventually, women reacted positively to
this "intense courtship of women by employers and government" ‘(Harvey
2010, p5. of 6), but this change differentiated in regards to race, age, class,
marital status, and number of children. For example, married women with
children under 14 were persuaded to stay at home to care for their families
because the government also feared the increase of juvenile delinquency.
However, as the war progressed the demand for workers increased and mothers
with children under 6 years began employment. In reality though, 90% of mothers
were home at any given time (Sorensen (a) 2004). Moreover, it was even more difficult
to recruit married woman because even if they wanted to work, many husbands
were not ‘sold’ on the concept.
A major challenge the U.S. government faced was the
changing of men's attitudes. Male employers and employees did not give
female roles serious consideration and their needs were perceived as secondary.
Within the nation’s economic status women were still treated as subordinate
however, as the war continued, these attitudes changed and employers encouraged
them (Doyle 2009, Sorenson (a) 2004). At this point the government and
businesses hired many photographers, artists, illustrators and mass media
intellectuals to ‘sell’ this ‘natural’ idea to the population
During 1942, a song titled ‘Rosie the Riveter’ (Appendix A) was
written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. The
Four Vagabonds, a popular "barbershop” R&B genre group later
created a version that grew in popularity on the Hit Parade (Doyle
2009). Stuart Hall (1980) writes, that an “object” is ‘… meanings and messages
in the form of sign-vehicles of a specific kind organized … through the
operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse’ (Hall 1980, p.
128). ‘Rosie the Riveter’ is an “object” because her creation is a structure of
signs reinforcing the objective codes placed within syntagmatic chain of
social, political economic (and propaganda) discourses. This is very relevant
within the lyrics of this song.
Within the lyrics (linguistic signs) the signifier is a woman who is
signified as a young, white, unwed, American who is smeared full of oil and
grease as she works overtime on a B-Nineteen aircraft with her riveting machine. Through the
coded war production paradigm of the lyrics, the signification is that the
woman is protecting her workplace; the men at War (represented as the Marine
boyfriend, Charlie), her nation, and its economy from sabotage. The lyrics
reinforce the popular war time ideology that women, collectively, were making a
positive contribution in terms of ‘working for victory’, ‘doing her bit for the old Lendlease’ and that she has ‘sense’ by
purchasing war bonds thus ensuring her economic stability in the future. In
addition, her actions are politically endorsed and supported with the reference
to ‘Senator Jones’. It also carries a propaganda undertone in that ‘Berlin will hear about’
this much praised woman, ‘Rosie the Riveter’. Within the paradigmatic syntagms
of war production, ‘what
is “meant” is invariably more than what is “said”’ (Chandler 2002, p. 176). The woman is
also given the name Rosie, a coded female epitome that is decoded into an
identity which many women would relate to. Barthes' concept of
'second-order signification' is also relevant here. The concept of an endless
chain of signifiers goes beyond Saussure in that the signs no longer have to a
physical dimension.
The signified for 'rose' (flower) can also become the signifier of
a new signifier/signified combination. “Rosie’s” name can also be interpreted
as “Rosie, by name. Rosie by nature” implying that this image has a cheerful
disposition and is a specimen of hearty health; far removed from the visual
scenes of those who suffered hunger and depravation of the Great Depression. The media cannot easily be isolated
from the rest of life as it assists in forming ideas of what and how we think,
and who we imagine ourselves to be.
Susanne Langer (1951) argues that ‘non-discursive’ media are
more subtle and complex than verbal language and they should not be subjected
to Saussure’s model. Langer claims that such media is ‘particularly well-suited
to the expression of ideas that defy linguistic “projection”’, and that the
laws of syntax differs greatly to what governs language’ (Langer 1951, cited in
Chandler 2002, p. 11). Codes are unwritten
conventions about how signs can or should be used. Groups that get to dominate
some discourse have more influence over the codes that are generated.
Chandler (2002) points out that,
‘While
the individual is an actual person, the subject is a set of roles constructed
by dominant cultural and ideological values. Subjects are not actual people but
exist only in relation to interpretative practices and are constructed through
the use of signs’
(Chandler 2002, p.180).
This appears to be very much the case in the next example
(Appendix B). In 1942, Pittsburgh artist J. Howard
Miller was contracted by the Westinghouse
Company’s ‘War Production Coordinating Committee’ to create a series of
posters for the war effort. Miller
based the image of the poster woman from a United Press photograph of Lansing
(Michigan) factory worker, Geraldine Doyle. Essentially, Miller drew on a
three dimensional real person and through the use coherent narrative re-created
her into the artist’s ‘realism’ depiction (Doyle 2009, Chandler 2002, Hall
Barthes 1977). The ‘We Can Do It’ poster (later claimed in the
1980’s as ‘Rosie the Riveter’), through its signs, genre and mode of address,
produced and reproduced an ideology endorsing the governments political and
economic narratives and discourse. Fundamentally, ‘… posters played a key role in the effort to recruit women
for the wartime workforce’ (Doyle 2009, p 3 of 5). One of these posters became the famous “We Can Do It!” image, created for a limited field being displayed at only one Midwest Westinghouse factory
for two weeks in February 1942.
In Miller’s poster, the
tenor and context involves trying to ‘sell’ not only Westinghouse products (a
discourse which appeals to the woman, the home, and household appliances), but
to also try to ‘sell’, to both men and women, the ideology that it is
acceptable for both sexes to make a productive contribution to the war effort .
The image of the solo woman signifies independence and the
discourse of individualism, particularly in the conception that individual
initiative is the answer to economic woe (Lacey, 1998). The size of her arm is
a representation of a man’s arm and the quintessential focus of the image. She
has also rolled up her sleeves’ signifying that she is prepared for hard work.
The woman is wearing men’s overalls. Women rarely wore trousers in public
before World War II; but become it commonplace to see women dressed in factory
overalls (Harvey 2010). The discourse for her patriotism is coded within the
primary colours used in her clothing; that being red, white and blue.
Furthermore, Lévi-Strauss (1972) conceptualized that through the
structures of the mind that we define what it IS what it ISN”T through binary
oppositions e.g. male/female, home/work, marriageable/tabooed women. As Levi-Strauss puts it, ‘the
existence of differentiating features is of much greater importance than their
content’ (Lévi-Strauss1972,
cited in Chandler 2002, p. 31). This binary opposition can be
seen in the way ‘Rosie’ is codified as feminine.
She is wearing lipstick, rouge and makeup. According to some populist articles
of the time, makeup was essential to women's mental health (Harvey 2010).
Despite the arm of strength being the central focus of the poster, her arms,
face and clothing are clean and her hair is tidily arranged and tucked neatly
under her head scarf signifying that she is ‘clean cut’ and proud of her
appearance. She is also codified as being single (marriageable) as she wears no
wedding ring (Lacey 1998, Harvey 2010). These messages are less subtle but
endorse the more dominant masculine messages of the text.
Most poster images have
some form of associated text and are ‘naturally’ and steadfastly anchored so
that the array of probable meanings is restricted. Barthes (1977) described the
primary function of ‘anchorage’ as ideological and being used ‘… to fix the floating chain of signifieds’
(Barthes 1977 39ff, cited Chandler 2002). The ‘stamp of approval’ langue of the War Production
Coordinating Committee anchors the image of
this strong woman to ‘sell’ the ideology that it was acceptable and appropriate
for women to ‘roll up their sleeves’. As Chandler (2002) claims, ‘… we are “always already” positioned
by semiotic systems …. (and) in conforming to any of the conventions of our
medium, we act as a medium for perpetuating such conventions’ (Chandler 2002,
p. 195-96). In terms of the phatic function of the sign, the
woman gazes directly at the viewer thus building an (intimate) relationship
between the image and the audience. The tenor and discourse of the text, “We
can do it!” constructs and reinforces relationship that communicates a
collective, objective and subjective WE regarding supporting the nation
patriotically and economically.
Fundamentally
though, the general consensus agreed a woman working in war production
industries was an ideal solution but this would be a temporary condition.
Anderson (2001) claims,
“While the image of
the woman worker was important during the war, the prewar image of women as
wives and mothers by no means disappeared. Mainstream society accepted
temporary changes brought about by a war, but considered them undesirable on a
permanent basis. The public reminded women that their greatest asset was their
ability to take care of their homes and that career women would not find a
husband” (Anderson 2001 p. 60,
cited in Sorenson 2004).
This ideology would be sorely tested though as female employee’s
discovered non-material benefits such as contributing positively to the
societal good, learning new proficiencies, and building their confidence and
self esteem in areas previously viewed as ‘men’s work’ (Hartmann 1982 p. 79,
cited in Sorenson 2004). While patriotism initially influenced women,
ultimately it was the economic enticement that convinced them.
Within a culture who
continued to dominantly believe that a ‘woman’s place was in the home’; the
U.S. government launched a powerful propaganda campaign to stimulate public
support. As part of the reproducing dominant texts which endorsed political and
economic conventions, Norman Rockwell’s
‘Rosie’ appeared on the front cover of the Saturday
Evening Post (Memorial Day Issue) on May 29, 1943 (Appendix C). This image
of Rosie, with its signs, codes and conventions, was viewed by a readership of
over 3 million people and was also displayed in other publications
such as The Art Digest (July 1, 1943) (Harvey 2010, Doyle, 2009).
Texts do not operate
in a vacuum; they feed off and confirm each other as society essentially makes
sense of them in relation to other texts. It would be fair to assume that
Rockwell had heard lyrics as well as witnessed Miller’s poster when he created
his interpretation. Intertextual patterns abound within this interpretation.
The fact that he wrote
the name "Rosie" on the lunch box in his representation attests to
such an assumption. This additional imagery also gives the figure an identity
to which can be related to by the majority of U.S. citizens as it pushes the receiver of the message in certain directions
whilst also closing off certain possibilities (Chandler 2002, Davies et. al., 2002). ‘Rosie’ is a visual
paradigm of masculine codes and conventions. Post-structural theorist, Julia
Kristeva’s (1980) coined the term ‘structuation’ in defining how a text is
created through a horizontal (connecting texts author and reader) and vertical
axis (connecting texts with other texts) with the uniting point being in chosen
‘shared codes’ (Kristeva 1980, cited in Chandler 2002). This appears very much
the case when comparing the three texts mentioned.
She is brawnier and
stronger compared to Miller’s interpretation. Her muscular arms are still very
much a central focus in a show of might and strength and are smeared with
grease and dirt connoting that she has been up to her armpits in ‘man’s work’.
However, they are not tattooed which encodes the signification that she is not
a tabooed woman and is of ‘marriageable’ stock (Lacey 1998). Second-order
signification (Barthes 1973) is also relevant in this instance; in quoting a
Sotheby’s curator, Doyle (2009) writes ‘“Righteousness is described throughout
Isaiah’s prophecy as God’s ‘strong right arm’ … a characterization that must
surely have occurred to [Rockwell] as he portrayed Rosie’s muscular forearms’”
(Doyle 2009, p. 3 of 5). Furthermore, second-order
signification is evident in the over-sized riveting gun she holds. This
signifying piece of wartime production machinery not only denotes and situates
“Rosie” acceptably in a man’s world; it also (in the position it is facing) anchors
her to the American flag and her dedication to the nation. The texts
intertextuality of codes in the colour theme of Rosie’s clothing highlights the
red, white, and blue (as previously experienced in both The Four Vagabonds song and Miller’s poster); colours that are
dominant with the American flag featured in the background. The way Rosie’s carefree head is turned
to the side anchors her to the American flag, an iconic symbol of patriotism (Harvey
2010, Doyle 2009, Barthes 1973, Lacey
1998,). The syntagm of Rosie and the American flag generates the meaning that
the image, in its entirety, is strong and patriotic.
Within the discourse and shared contexts of
war, the riveting gun can be interpreted as a machine gun – a weapon associated
with the battlefield. Clearly, this sends a message that she fully supports the
men away fighting. Additionally, on her lapel you can see various pins
denoting her security badge, blood donation and victory (Harvey 2010). Just as
U.S. men were fighting for the defence of their nations overseas (and in doing
so earns medals of honour on the battlefield), so to U.S. females were winning
awards and badges of workplace and social excellence (Sorensen
(b) 2004). Second-order signification within this image establishes and
re-affirms the ideologies and dominant discourses associated with masculinity,
the economy, and war.
In terms of Saussure’s
‘slippery’ theories of parole and langue, so to can a simple signifier in the
form of “Rosie’s” loafers be read in a variable and diverse ‘ways of seeing’.
In reality, it was only in 1943 that safety shoes
with metal toes produced for women. There had been no need to manufacture these
shoes in women's sizes before because women didn't customarily work in
dangerous positions. However, with the symbolism of Mein Kampf being under a woman’s foot gives a clear message that
‘Rosie’ and the nation will defeat Hitler. Also, in further quoting the Sotheby’s curator previously
mentioned, Doyle (2009) further claims,
‘ “Just
as Isaiah was called by God to convert the wicked from their sinful ways and
trample evildoers under foot … so Rockwell’s Rosie tramples Hitler under her
all-American penny loafer” ‘ (Doyle 2009, p. 3 of 5).
Mass media codes allow
readers to have social identities which some may support. However, there are
also readers who will not accept such codes. Aberrant decoding (Eco 1965, cited
in Chandler 2002) occurs if the sender and the receiver (and vice versa) do not
agree to or recognize such social positions and codes, the decoding will diverge
from the encoders meaning (Chandler 2002). While most U.S. citizens began
accepting ‘Rosie’ (and Hitler’s war crimes) as a ‘natural’ ideology, not all
read these dominant codes in the same way. Social semiotician, M.A.K. Halliday
(cited in Chandler (2002), argues that texts are apt be shaped by their
contexts as well as be apt to contour their contexts.
Sharing contexts is not
just about being in the same space and time, there is also a cultural
dimension. People from very different cultures will each bring a different
context to the interpretation of the same text (Chandler 2002). As Gluck (1999)
claims, ‘Rosie the Riveter’ was not a monolithic type. The
war opened up avenues in the civilian labor force for minority women such as
older females and housewives, Latino’s and Blacks who tended to read ‘Rosie’
(and Hitler) differently. Gluck re-quotes a Black woman employed at the time,
Tina Hill saying, ‘… Hitler was the one who got us out of the white folks’
kitchen’ (Gluck 1999, n.p.). It is likely that the women in Nazi Germany would
not have viewed “Rosie” with much the same ‘intimate’ connection.
Moreover, there are also signs, codes and conventions that
contradict and conflict with the dominant masculine ideology. Again, she is
wearing make-up and nail polish, signified in her handkerchief and compact
peeking out of her top pocket while her upturned nose and curly red hair
further feminises her. The visor “Rosie” wears metaphorically looks like a
halo, revealing angelic signification to this powerful and competent woman.
Additionally, she is depicted as eating, an activity linked with the home and
thus showing, through a paradigm of women/food/home, her domestic side (Harvey
2010, Doyle 2009). Through this binary opposition,
the feminine side of ‘Rosie’ aides in strengthening the masculine aspects of
the text as well sends a gender inequality message that woman working in such a
way was a temporary condition and that she would return to ‘domestic’ duties
when the men returned from war.
In conclusion, the turmoil
of the decade of 1935 – 1945 taught American people the endurance to survive
hardship and the value of economic security, both personally and nationally.
Throughout the decade a mindset of a nation was changed through the shift in ideologies
set out in dominant social, political and economic discourse. This discussion
has explored many theories including Saussure’s
theories relating to Semiotics, Hall (1980), Kristeva (1980), Barthes (1977 and
1973), Eco (1973), Lévi-Strauss (1972) in understanding how texts convey
meaning through the concepts of codes, context, discourse, genre, ideology,
intertextuality and signs. Clearly, in a culture whereby the mythical ‘common
man’ featured heavily in Rockwell’s art and Roosevelt’s speeches, ‘Rosie the
Riveter’ became a lyrical, visual and iconic subject who drastically defined
and re-defined a nation’s way of seeing. Nevertheless, while Americans faced
radical change to their fundamental beliefs, social change finished with the
reaffirmation of America’s traditional political discourse and cultural past.
_________________________________________________________________________
References
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K 2001, Wartime
women: sex roles, family relations, and the status of women during World
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_________________________________________________________________________
Appendix
A
1942
‘Rosie the Riveter’ Song
Lyrics
written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb
While other girls attend their
fav’rite cocktail bar
Sipping Martinis, munching caviar
There’s a girl who’s really putting
them to shame
Rosie is her name
Sipping Martinis, munching caviar
There’s a girl who’s really putting
them to shame
Rosie is her name
All the day long whether rain
or shine
She’s a part of the assembly line
She’s making history,
working for victory
Rosie the Riveter
Keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage
Sitting up there on the fuselage
That little frail can do more than a
male will do
Rosie the Riveter
She’s a part of the assembly line
She’s making history,
working for victory
Rosie the Riveter
Keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage
Sitting up there on the fuselage
That little frail can do more than a
male will do
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie’s got a boyfriend,
Charlie
Charlie, he’s a Marine
Rosie is protecting Charlie
Working overtime on the
riveting machine
When they gave her a production “E”
She was as proud as a girl could be
There’s something true about
Red, white, and blue about
Rosie the Riveter
Charlie, he’s a Marine
Rosie is protecting Charlie
Working overtime on the
riveting machine
When they gave her a production “E”
She was as proud as a girl could be
There’s something true about
Red, white, and blue about
Rosie the Riveter
Everyone stops to admire the
scene
Rosie at work on the B-Nineteen
She’s never twittery, nervous or jittery
Rosie the Riveter
What if she’s smeared full of
oil and grease
Doing her bit for the old Lendlease
She keeps the gang around
They love to hang around
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie at work on the B-Nineteen
She’s never twittery, nervous or jittery
Rosie the Riveter
What if she’s smeared full of
oil and grease
Doing her bit for the old Lendlease
She keeps the gang around
They love to hang around
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie
buys a lot of war bonds
That girl really has sense
Wishes she could purchase
more bonds
Putting all her cash into national
defense
Senator Jones who is “in the know”
Shouted these words on the radio
Berlin will hear about
Moscow will cheer about
Rosie the Riveter!
That girl really has sense
Wishes she could purchase
more bonds
Putting all her cash into national
defense
Senator Jones who is “in the know”
Shouted these words on the radio
Berlin will hear about
Moscow will cheer about
Rosie the Riveter!
Paramount Music Corporation, NY, 1942 (cited in Doyle 2009)
_________________________________________________________________________
Appendix B
 |
J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" (cited in Doyle 2009)
|
_________________________________________________________________________
Appendix
C
 |
Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post cover
featuring Rosie the Riveter (cited in Doyle 2009)
|
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