Film Response
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University of California, Davis *
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173
Subject
History
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by adamquach03
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Adam Quach
Dr. Sarah Schrank
HIST 173
15 October 2023
Film Response
Men had to enlist in the military and serve on the front lines when the US entered the
conflict, which left a labor shortage in America. Women who had previously worked in
low-paying occupations, who had employment but lost them because of the Depression, or
housewives who simply stayed at home to care for their families were the only people still
employed. Therefore, the U.S. administration depicted women's military labor as feminine to
persuade women to go to work to recruit more labor. For instance, the short film,
Rosie the
Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II
, talked about how they used an image of Rosie the
Riveter to show that a woman can do a man’s work while being feminine through the looks and
actions of the photo. Furthermore, in the 1943 picture of her with a riveting gun, she is shown
with a big masculine figure and is wearing men’s overalls, but having nail polish and lipstick, as
makeup was essential to women’s mental health at the time (Schrank, Powerpoint 8, p.17). Also,
she was eating a sandwich, showing the domestic side of women. Thus, portraying that all labor
work is associated with activities that women would do at home. Plus, in lecture, stated that the
Rosie the Riveter images gave two messages, and one of them was directed towards women and
how if they were to stay feminine in industrial work, then they would be attracted to it (Schrank,
Lecture 8, p.7).
Women's participation in military work signified a fundamental shift in the roles that
women played in American society before, during, and after the war. Old assumptions about
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women being dependent on the males in their homes were challenged by women in the
workforce. Before the war, women either stayed at home to take care of their families and do
housework or worked in low-paying occupations. Many chances for women to work outside of
the home were made possible by the conflict. They received expert instruction and training to
hone their tool and machine operation abilities so they could complete the tasks more quickly
and efficiently. For example in the
Glamour Girls of 1943
, women saw duties overseas at
hospitals, the old prejudice against women in the industry was broken by the demand for more
manpower, which led to women having worked as nurses, in railroad yards, factories, and on the
farm. Their contributions and hard work played a huge part in the victory of the war which gave
women a good standing at the time. However, it was not permanent but seen as a temporary
thing. According to the lecture, the second reason for the images of Rosie the Riveter is directed
toward men saying that “even if women were in the workforce, traditional gender roles were the
same—men were men, women were women” (Schrank, Lecture 8, p.7). It was meant as a
reassurance for men that whatever gender changes were occurring in the US was only temporary.
Despite the mayor's denial that racial segregation wasn't the root of the zoot suit riots, it
was generally believed that it was. In
ZOOT SUIT RIOTS (HISTORY)
, in the beginning, when
Los Angeles became a part of the United States, there was prejudice among white people toward
Mexican Americans. Mexican Americans developed a protective mentality in safeguarding their
territory since they were forced to dwell in tightened areas and were viewed as foreigners in the
city established by their ancestors (American Experience, PBS, 2023). The Sleepy Lagoon case,
which catalyzed the zoot suit riots, began with racial discrimination on the part of the police and
courts toward the Mexican-American children. Due to a lack of evidence, the defendants were
treated cruelly, did not have a fair trial, and were ultimately found guilty of a crime they did not
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commit (Schrank, Lecture 8, p.4). Additionally, the hostility harbored by military personnel
towards Mexican Americans fueled the animosity between the two sides. The riots initially
targeted everyone wearing zoot suits as a threat to Americans, but they subsequently attacked
Mexican Americans exclusively, regardless of whether they were wearing zoot suits or not.
The zoot suits, which were a type of clothing that young Mexican Americans favored,
embodied the notion of being youthful and a freedom of artistic expression. The clothing that the
young Mexican American teens wore were large floppy hats, long-draped jackets, pegged pants,
and pocket watches with huge chains. The suits were seen as provocative because the sailors saw
the zoot suits as showing defiance and lacking patriotism (Faragher et al., p. 566). The cultural
meaning that the zoot suits carried was that it demonstrated to young Chicano people that their
opinions would always be met with hostility and be perceived as threatening. No matter how the
Chicano expressed themselves they would get hated, treated unfairly, and victimized for it
(American Experience, PBS, 2023).
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Works Cited
Faragher, John Mack, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel J. Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of
many: A history of the American people. Vol. 2. Boston: Pearson, 2020.
Glamour Girls of 1943
. US Office of War Information, (1943). [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcQ6950x7nk&ab_channel=WarStories
Rosie the Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II
. Library of Congress, (2009,
February 10). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04VNBM1PqR8
Schrank Sarah. “World War II, Race, and the Zoot Suit Riots”. HISTORY 173: Recent
United States History Module 8 Lecture.
Schrank Sarah. “World War II, Race, and the Zoot Suit Riots”. HISTORY 173: Recent
United States History Module 8 PowerPoint.
ZOO SUITS (HISTORY)
. American Experience | PBS, (2023, September 26). [Video].
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgZBH0oiwQ&t=4s&ab_channel=AmericanExperience%7
CPBS