Comments on: “Putting Glamour in its Proper Wartime Place”

By: In a changing world, however, a change of hairstyle was indicated « Have a Good Time

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 19:35:07 +0000

[...] dominated by luxurious hair.) But what actually got me thinking more about this was a video Sociological Images posted last year, which I was reminded of by China Miéville’s note on military rules for [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:00:08 +0000

“Setting the style for a War Way of Life.” It’s always interesting to see clips from this period which use war as a defining characteristic of the country. Something distinctly lacking today. America is currently engaged in two prolonged foreign wars (and itching for 2 more – Iran & Pakistan). Today, war is just a modern inconvenience much like higher prices for out-of-season produce. You know, on second thought, let’s just not even talk about it.

By: Tove Hermanson

Tove Hermanson — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:23:51 +0000

I think they exaggerated the ridiculous, futile movement of women brushing or lifting their forward-swept locks from their faces, but that said, I’ve read in many fashion history sources that hair caught in machinery was a legitimate problem in WWII. It’s difficult to know if this problem was sexist hype, perpetuated by ads like this, or actually rooted in factory accident statistics….

By: K

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:55:34 +0000

Calling an adult a “lady” or, still worse, a “woman,” used to be considered insulting. A “lady” was old,” and a “woman” was sluttish. A adult “girl,” however, was chastely attractive. Today, it’s easy to see how all of these connotations are demeaning toward women. But in the ’40s, the narrator would have been seen as merely being decent and polite.

By: Michael Zunenshine

Michael Zunenshine — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:44:15 +0000

How ironic, the ‘futile gesture’ of brushing one’s hair back, as a deterrence against the ‘futile gesture’ of manufacturing military equipment. Isn’t the gesture, by nature, futile? As it is simply the shy and uncertain sister of an ‘action’–meant to be slipped by without notice, but loaded by our uncomfortable unconsciousness.

By: Sara Pulis

Sara Pulis — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:53:32 +0000

That this is targeted exclusively to women is astounding; weren’t most people back then around to see the standard men’s hairstyle change from long to short due to lice problems in the trenches of WWI. What, so there were no holdouts at all and every man cropped his ‘do immediately upon seeing that it was out of fashion? I doubt this since you still see mullets today.

By: And Now For Something Completely Different | Feinmotoriker

And Now For Something Completely Different | Feinmotoriker — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:51:41 +0000

[...] via 09.04.2010 | Tags: 1940s, arbeitsschutz, Hair Tyle, peekaboo, safety first, Veronica Lake, war, werbung, WWII | Category: Feinmotorik, Tageswahn [...]

By: Rraven

Rraven — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:23:36 +0000

make and wig fitting sessions?

By: Carolina

Carolina — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:59:15 +0000

I love it – and really, things hadn’t changed much by the time I entered the military in 1975. My basic training group was simultaneously the last of the WACs – and the first time women were considered ‘regular army’. The very same day we trained with hand grenades, we returned to a makeup and wig-fitting session.

By: Syd

Syd — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:17:39 +0000

It’s not that the advice is necessarily bad but oh…..calling those grown, even middle aged women ‘girls?’ Not even ‘ladies?’ Oh my…..

By: rowmyboat

rowmyboat — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:53:33 +0000

I love the diversity of body types in this video. Double chins, even!

By: Natalie

Natalie — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:52:42 +0000

I want to know how to do that “simple” style she ended up with. Looks very pretty but complicated to my eyes! (Was that a frivolous and not-so-sociological comment? Yes it was, but I’m OK with it.)

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:27:33 +0000

Considering the propensity of women to wear high heels and other footwear that’s potentially dangerous and unhealthy, I can say things have changed much. Many women still do seemingly ridiculous things to emulate stars.

By: Ollie

Ollie — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:00:56 +0000

To be fair, I don’t think it assumes ignorance because they are female. The same kind of things are said during the tutorials for todays factories. At that time men didn’t have long hair, so the instructions would have been pointless (plus they were off at war). But it’s not hard to imagine an instructional video for male workers at that time that tells them to take off their fedora and put out their cigarette before operating a machine.

But it does assume vanity… Perhaps nowadays we just assume BOTH genders are vain.

By: Sanguinity

Sanguinity — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:59:37 +0000

Agh! Look at all those unguarded power-transfer belts!

…that said, nice to be able to get celebrities to star in your industrial safety videos.