*Made for the March 2016 contest of FWOY magazine, an amazing piece of work (that I now work at ;D).
In which an ordinary Rosie receives some yellow mimosas and realizes that maybe she's a little less ordinary than she thought.
Well, thanks for reading guys :) As I mention in the FWOY chapter thingy, this story was for a contest for the FWOY magazine, where you had to choose a strong woman. Now, my woman may not have been very clear, but the image that goes along with it might have been a little familiar:
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Well, that was larger than I expected, but still...
Oh well.
Anyways.
That was a piece of propaganda put out by the US during the first world war. Because all the men had gone to fight in the war, there was no one to work the jobs they left behind, so America used images like these to encourage women to engage in the war effort by taking up these jobs.
Here are some other examples:
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The woman way above in particular is known as Rosie the Riveter, the representation of every ordinary woman who stepped up to work during the war. I wanted to capture how strong and independent these women were, even when after the war all the men reclaimed their jobs and they were tossed out once more, even when decades before society had told them their place was in the home. That's where Rosie Burnette comes in: she's an average housewife-turned-worker, yet one of history's strongest women, and I wanted to reflect this everyday strength in her character.
Think about it: even though they were pushed around and discriminated against, whether they were in the house or working, these women stepped up to the challenge. And EVEN AFTER THAT, they were told to go back to the house when the men returned from war.
Really?
Really?
Reeeeeaaaaally?
AND EVEN AFTER THAT, they get slammed for wanting votes and freedom:
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Seeing all of this really makes one wonder: how on earth could anyone put up with this?
And yet, these women did.
So to everyone who went through world war one, whether on the front lines of the battlefield or the assembly line, thank you for your service.
Conclusion:
Will this count as a strong woman?
The answer is a definite, confident, undeniable maaaaaaaaaaybeeeeee?
We'll see.
At least I had fun (and I hope I got my message across too).
