Fool the Axis—use Prophylaxis!

February 13, 2015 12:45 PM

How the Military Waged a Graphic-Design War on Venereal Disease In many ways, such a coordinated public effort to alter sexual behavior was unprecedented. At a time when discussion of sexual activity was anything but frank, the VD posters of World War II addressed the topic directly using clinical language, ominous symbolic imagery, and jingoistic slogans to help enlisted men steer clear of sexually transmitted infections. While American sex-ed programs have taken many forms over the last hundred years, the military’s VD campaign left a unique trail of ephemera in its wake, featuring imagery that’s both gorgeous and deeply unsettling.
posted by Michele in California (30 comments total)

50 Shades of Camouflage?
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:50 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, women sure are evil. Except your mother and sweetheart back home, of course.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:52 PM on February 13, 2015 [8 favorites]

Someone, somewhere has a tattoo of that skeleton in a red dress.
posted by emptythought at 1:16 PM on February 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

These would make great art for the bathroom. Can never be too safe.
posted by Foam Pants at 1:23 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

The "there’s no medicine for regret" guy looks like he regrets a lot of things.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:24 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

A comic book story idea I'm not writing is based on how the United States got Dr. Seuss, Walt Disney, and B.F. Skinner together as a superteam, something of a spiritual successor to Five Fists of Science.

But wow, lots of misogyny and wartime racism in the real thing.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:25 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Hmmm. "VD. Don't smear your record."

I see what they did there.

But it's no Return of Count Spirochete.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:31 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

FYI (in case you did not know): Dr. Seuss did draw political cartoons during WWII:

As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper...

Wikipedia

posted by Michele in California at 1:36 PM on February 13, 2015

Someone, somewhere has a tattoo of that skeleton in a red dress.

V.D.: WORSE THAN HITLER
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:52 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

The psywar.org site has ganseyloads of this sort of thing (rabbit hole warning)
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:53 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Syphilitic Dinosaurs! Take care!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 2:29 PM on February 13, 2015

Wow, women sure are evil.

Moralism and sexism are part and parcel, no doubt, but STDs were actually potentially crippling and deadly in this era, and military hospitals did not have extra beds. The over-the-top messaging had a very real point.
posted by dhartung at 2:45 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

There must have been so many VD-Day jokes.
posted by michaelh at 2:53 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't say it's misogynistic. It's certainly sex-negative, to be sure, but, well, sex-negative scare tactics don't just discourage consensual sex.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:56 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's certainly sex-negative, to be sure, but, well, sex-negative scare tactics don't just discourage consensual sex.

Starving women exchanging sex for food probably made for pretty high STD rates in some areas.
posted by srboisvert at 3:09 PM on February 13, 2015

Oh the innocent days before multidrug resistant sexually transmitted infections.

And HIV.
posted by porpoise at 3:29 PM on February 13, 2015

"VD can be cured, but there's no medicine for regret" sounds like it's encouraging promiscuity. YOLO!
posted by neckro23 at 3:33 PM on February 13, 2015 [5 favorites]

Apparently there's a now-lost cartoon on the subject in one of the series of shorts related to Private Snafu. I was thinking I'd seen one, but the cartoon I recall is pretty clearly the Private Snafu short Spies, which has a lot of the same suspicion of women that characterizes the posters.
posted by immlass at 3:46 PM on February 13, 2015

WHOM
HAVE YOU EXPOSED TO
SYPHILIS?

People talk about Grammar Nazis, but they so seldom remember the Grammar Allies.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:01 PM on February 13, 2015 [27 favorites]

I find it hard to feel as though the overarching message of "keep your dicks out of those filthy foreign whoresluts if you want to be good American men" isn't problematic to some degree.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:07 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yeah. Most Promiscuous Women Have VENEREAL DISEASE! isn't exactly subtle about its misogyny.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:20 PM on February 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Wow, women sure are evil. Except your mother and sweetheart back home, of course.

The latter of whom, according to the other side's propaganda, is undoubtably sleeping around with some Jewish banker.
posted by localroger at 4:21 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite excerpts from Gay New York concerns the response of some WWII soldiers to this particular campaign--apparently, the association of 'loose women' with venereal disease worked really really well. Well enough that at least some men went "Well, I just won't sleep with women then--that way I'll be totally fine!"

These are awesome, by the way. Thanks for sharing!
posted by sciatrix at 5:13 PM on February 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

KNOW FOR SURE!

A charming short PSA melodrama with the worst Italian stereotype since Chico Marx bought a liberty cap. I highly recommend it.

"Tony, your son was born dead."
**drops accordion**
posted by Countess Elena at 5:26 PM on February 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

I can't get over how gorgeous some of the graphical styles are. And the lettering. Oh my dog, the lettering.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:25 AM on February 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:53 AM on February 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

The really funny thing is that this continues to this day. When I went to Korea for the first time, we were all told of the dreaded "black syphilis" carried by the prostitutes of the country - an STD so bad that if you got it, you could never go home, and would be quarantined forever in the country of Korea. I mean, looking back as a full fledged adult it is obviously ridiculous, but at the time a good portion of us believed it.
posted by corb at 2:07 PM on February 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

A huge number of these are really problematic, but oh how I would love to have a reproduction of the syphilitic dinosaurs for my office. Especially given that I recently finished editing a huge series of chapters on syphilis. If anyone knows where to find them, please point me that way.
posted by amelioration at 7:07 PM on February 14, 2015

A huge number of these are really problematic, but oh how I would love to have a reproduction of the syphilitic dinosaurs for my office. Especially given that I recently finished editing a huge series of chapters on syphilis. If anyone knows where to find them, please point me that way.
posted by amelioration

Here you go.
posted by Daddy-O at 7:15 PM on February 14, 2015

A+ TO YOU GOOD SIR!
posted by amelioration at 7:16 PM on February 14, 2015