We Can Do It! (Yes, we can?)

[No Elephants]

Politicians of all political hues have always loved to extol "the working man," now sometimes more egalitarianly referred to as "working families."

It's not difficult to grok why. First, working families, as opposed to those who live off investment income or inheritances, are the vast majority of the population of the U.S. That includes those who are eligible to register to vote.

Working families also pay a lot of the politicians's bills, while using relatively little of government benefits . That includes the salaries of politicians, and all their imperial benefits (security, drivers, Congressional gymnasium, posh offices, staff, etc.) No offshore bank accounts, no ability legally to pay no taxes while sucking the life out of the infrastructure, like General Electric, etc.


Not very long ago, I posted about Labor Day, a day that, in every country around the world, except the US, is observed on May 1, near the anniversay of May 4, 1886, when four American workers died in Chicago, Illinois in a fight for an 8 hour work day. But, in the US, was set up on the day the Knights of Columbus favored, for the express purpose of ensuring that Americans would NOT join the rest of the world in commemorating the Haymarket affair.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2492819&mesg_id=2492819

During World War II, we still loved the working man, especially if he was 4F. Our greatest love, though, was for "our" troops. Also for the "folks back home" who provided support, like working in "defense" plants. Which brings me to our "working man" of World War II, namely our working woman.

The poster was seen very little during World War II. It was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often called "We Can Do It!" but also called "Rosie the Riveter" after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker. The "We Can Do It!" image was used to promote feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s.<1> The image made the cover of the Smithsonian magazine in 1994 and was fashioned into a US first-class mail stamp in 1999. It was incorporated in 2008 into campaign materials for several American politicians, and was reworked by an artist in 2010 to celebrate the first woman becoming prime minister of Australia. The poster is one of the ten most-requested images at the National Archives and Records Administration.<1>

After its rediscovery, observers often assumed that the image was always used as a call to inspire women workers to join the war effort. However, during the war the image was strictly internal to Westinghouse, displayed only during February 1943, and was not for recruitment but to exhort already-hired women to work harder.<2> Feminists and others have seized upon the uplifting attitude and apparent message to remake the image into many different forms, including self empowerment, campaign promotion, advertising, and parodies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Do_It!

It's ironic that the poster got used as a symbol of feminism (whatever that means) because, once the war ended, Rosie was expected to remove the cloth from her head, tie it around her waist as an apron and make dinner for the returning warriors who needed her job. And, if by chance, the warrior she had kissed goodbye was not among the returning warriors, and she had to work to support her orphaned children, she was, if lucky enough to get a job, expected to accept a fraction of the wages paid her male counterparts for the same work. So, yes, Rosie was an ironic symbol for feminists.

But, hey, what 1950 housewife didn't know how to make lemonade from lemons?