Iron Women, Foxy Ladies

August 31, 2004 9:19 AM

Iron Women, Foxy Ladies-A collection of propaganda posters depicting the ideal, but contradictory, roles for Chinese women in the nation. Even if you're not interested in the politics, the evolution of style and form in the artwork is fascinating to examine.
posted by headspace (6 comments total)

Mmm, I love me some propaganda posters. Thanks, headspace.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:55 AM on August 31, 2004

Great link, headspace. There's a lot there.
posted by orange swan at 10:54 AM on August 31, 2004

It would have been even better if the captions on the posters were translated. Lines such as 'Raise big and fat pigs for the collective!' and 'Strive to master ways to kill the enemy, be ready for battle!' are too good not to share.
posted by of strange foe at 11:09 AM on August 31, 2004

These are excellent. Thanks for the link!
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:54 PM on August 31, 2004

I don't know as I agree with all of the commentary. Many of the women are young, polished and attractive, but so are the men - posters featuring attractive people are more upbeat, which fits with the desired effect of the propaganda. It's hard to read much sexism into that.

It is true that deep Cultural Revolution era art depicted women as rougher, even quite masculine - but they were not without beautiful strong women. It's not on this page, unfortunately, but a few years ago (when writing a term paper on Cultural Revolution era art) I came across a painting called (I think) "I am Seagull" - it depicted a young female engineer on top of a telephone pole in a storm - very striking.

That said, this is an excellent site, and thank you very much for posting it.
posted by jb at 7:47 PM on August 31, 2004

I just dug out the link for this great collection of similar posters. I
(It's probably been on Mefi several times, but it's so good . . . and there are many portraying women: "Women's Artillery Squad" and "Women Can Hold up Half the Sky; Surely the Face of Nature Can Be Transformed", for example.) I'm particularly fond of this one.
posted by Utilitaritron at 8:08 PM on August 31, 2004