Rosie the Riveter (North Vietnamese edition)

Practical Archivist (Sally J.) sez, "As long as we're celebrating Rosie the Riveter in all her glorious variety, I'd like to add this North Vietnamese welder to the mix. According to the caption, she is a 'worker of the Electrical Motor Workshop in Hanoi.' This photo is from a collection of North Vietnamese propaganda housed at the University of Wisconsin. I worked on it when I was in library school nearly 15 years ago. Glad to discover it's still up, although it seems funny how few of the photos I was allowed to include." Link (Thanks, Sally!)

See also: Rosie the Riveter: one of many finds in that LoC Flickr set

[#1 posted by RichSPK , January 20, 2008 7:25 AM]

Yow! She had to hold her mask with one hand while she welded with the other? That had to suck!

[#2 posted by konshtok , January 20, 2008 7:42 AM]

it's a photoshop or whatever it was called back then
the face is pasted

[#3 posted by sonny p fontaine , January 20, 2008 9:27 AM]

#2 WOW!!!already? it's been like, what, two days?

[#4 posted by bifbangpow , January 20, 2008 10:48 AM]

Thanks for posting this! I was amazed after I went to Vietnam and learned about the efforts of the women during the war. After I returned home I wrote about Vietnamese women soldiers, factory workers and agriculturalists...the women really made the country survive during those years.

[#5 posted by Practical Archivist , January 20, 2008 1:58 PM]

Uh, #2? Interesting theory, but as the librarian who scanned the original print back in 1994 I can tell ya it ain't so. You're welcome to examine the print yourself @Memorial Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Madison. It's a striking photo.

[#6 posted by Dan Freeman , January 21, 2008 7:52 AM]

Wait a minute, doesn't Rosie the Riveter not really count under communist regimes? I mean, it's not like she chose to go to work as an empowered female supporting the war effort in any way possible, as Rosie represents. She was probably forced to.

The ideals of equality in socialism are no doubt, well, ideal, but c'mon let's be honest about what this woman was/is truly facing in North Korea - work or starve.

Or work and starve anyway.

Totally unrelated - is there a way to post a comment after previewing it? I couldn't seem to find a way.

[#7 posted by Takuan , January 21, 2008 8:01 AM]

you don't think people in communist countries can be patriotic?

[#8 posted by sonny p fontaine , January 21, 2008 8:24 AM]

#7 dan freeman it was pretty much the same here. just because the u.s. was the wealthiest country (wealthy enough to fund the riech)doesn't mean that the females left behind could just sit back at home and milk the savings account. the patriotic angle is always trump'd up by the american media.

[#9 posted by EdT. , January 21, 2008 9:00 AM]

@#8 wrote: "you don't think people in communist countries can be patriotic?"

Of course they can. In fact, it's mandatory. :-)

[#10 posted by Takuan , January 21, 2008 9:11 AM]

yes, rather like the coming loyalty oaths that Homeland Security is working on