Coz the most important thing about Rosie Riveter was her lipstick shade, right?!

[shesellsseacats]

Is it just me or is this event at the Liverpool War Museum totally missing the point?

When I think of the women who worked in factories in WW2, the first thing I think of is their bad-assery, not their bloody makeup! And how badly they were treated once the "boys" wanted their jobs back.

Liverpool War Museum say:

We have invited a specialist make up artist to create quick vintage looks for kids. Included for free in the normal museum entry fee - the artist will be within the bunker and will be able to make kids look like Rosie Riveter complete with bright red lipstick and headscarf or create some camouflage face paint

Also, in another ad for it: Free special effects make up for kids, make up like Rosie Riveter or gun shot wounds and bruises.

So, a pretty outfit for the girls - even the ones working making munitions - and rough and tumble war for the boys, got it. . (I mean I know they don't explicitly SAY that, but it's obvious it's the offering).

I mean, I guess it's a way to get kids into the museum, and mine would love it to be fair, they love a bit of dressing up.

But come on, Liverpool War museum, can't you think of anything more relevant to the story of Rosie the Riveter and all the women who did what was considered "men's jobs" than a pretty bandana and some lippy, FFS?!

www.facebook.com/events/123967049803160/

She doesn’t even look like she is wearing lipstick!
Lipstick was pretty important to my granny and many women of that generation but they weren’t really about nude shades

In fact maybe I am not missing the point after all, given that they have clearly failed to actually look at the image.

Yeah it does rather miss the point!
It sounds like they have a face paint artist with nowt to do, so they're trying to shoe horn them in!

Also, the "gun shot wounds and bruises" is a bit poor taste I think?
The camo face paint however is both appropriate and relevant, and suitable for boys and girls.

Didn't many of the munitions workers turn yellow from the chemicals? That would be more relevant than lipstick I think. But poor taste.

Also Rosie is an American icon.

Laura Knight's portrait of Ruby Loftus is rather wonderful.

Rosie the Riveter is American. Completely unknown in the UK during the war. But there was Gracie Fields:

....amd my nan, who was on her way to the KLG spark plug factory one morning when it was bombed. So she didn't go in that day.

Red lipstick was worn as a symbol of victory. That’s why it was so popular in the 40’s. Women were encouraged to wear it as part of winning the war. Just like the Victory roll hair was for the same reason.

Not particularly feminist but factual all the same.

No lipstick in wartime Britain unless supplied by a friendly G.I.

There was at the start of the war. It was replaced by beetroot juice later.

I lecture history of fashion. There were attempts to keep Red lipstick supplied to the population. But Roadie the Riviter was American.

I'd be more concerned about making children up with 'gunshot wounds'. That seems in rather poor taste given the recent spate of gun crimes in the UK. I'm not equating military warfare to gun crime, I just mean guns shouldn't be presented as the subject of fun and games.

....dilute cocoa powder or Ovaltine for stockings, finished off with an eyebrow pencil seam.

And extra security needed at the parachute facory because parachutes were made of silk and that was in demand for home-made knickers.

@Jaysmith71

....dilute cocoa powder or Ovaltine for stockings, finished off with an eyebrow pencil seam.

And extra security needed at the parachute facory because parachutes were made of silk and that was in demand for home-made knickers.

All far more relevant to women in Liverpool factories than the lipstick an American was wearing.

Women in England wore it too.

‘Beauty is your duty’

To be fair, it doesn't specify the sex of the children - it just says 'kids'. I think a lesson in wartime style and the substitutes women (or Quentin Crisp!) would have had to use for make up and stockings could be fun and informative for them.

I think women actually were encouraged to wear lipstick during the war, unbelievable as it sounds. It was called the "red badge of courage" and apparently worked as an antidote to war nerves.
That last bit is a joke. Sort of.

"All far more relevant to women in Liverpool factories than the lipstick an American was wearing..."

Yes. Some Actual Fucking History would be nice

• Jay (BA Hons in Actual Fucking History)

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Women in England wore it too.

‘Beauty is your duty’

I didn't deny that they did. It wouldn't normally have been proper lipstick though so it would be more useful to teach about the substitutes.

The women in my family wore gravy browning for stockings, which is pretty amazing considering how often it rains. It led to some awful jokes about Bisto kids.

@Thelnebriati

The women in my family wore gravy browning for stockings, which is pretty amazing considering how often it rains. It led to some awful jokes about Bisto kids.

for 'Bisto kids'. Honestly can't envisage cocoa, let alone Ovaltine, working in quite the same way, though. My first-hand sources (anecdata, I know) never mentioned those, only gravy browning. Grr at the museum, too.

Apparently lipstick was kept off ration.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/54Bkl75qnYkDCc5h0hfZtlt/10-things-we-didnt-know-about-make-up

All the men on my Master’s history course were sniggering at the idea of women doing their make up to work in a factory. Stopped laughing when I explained it helped women to feel like women when they were being made to do men’s work.

@Muddydoor

All the men on my Master’s history course were sniggering at the idea of women doing their make up to work in a factory. Stopped laughing when I explained it helped women to feel like women when they were being made to do men’s work.

So now the sniggering men will think 'lipstick = feeling like a woman'... Men shaving before going in to battle was equally irrelevant to the task at hand. Merely expected. Like lipstick, it tells one NOTHING about the individual carrying the face treated thatly or thusly into their day.

My nana and her sister worked in munnitions during the war somewhere in Scotland . She told me they weren't allowed hairpins as they could cause a spark and kaboom! She was big on her lipstick until she died . Said it was about "putting a face on for the world " and it cheered her up. I've always followed that. She had an empty shell casing on her mantelpiece . ( I think my brother nicked it when she died.😔

Lipstick was seen as a morale booster - a not giving in to the hardships of war.

'Quick vintage looks' sounds like nostalgia, not history. OTOH, you could teach children about things like substituting beetroot juice and gravy browning for lipstick and stockings, and why women wore scarves in factories (to prevent their hair being snagged in the machinery) and weren't allowed to wear hairpins. If the children were young enough you could even have a bit of fun with it--for example, trying to draw their own stocking seams on. Older children could learn about make-do-and-mend and the as well as the various substitutes used for hard-to-find goods.

The gravy browning thing did happen but I have never met anyone who did it so I suspect it has grown rather out of proportion.
Most women just eked out what they had with plenty of sharing and borrowing and a lot of darning.

You're probably on the mark with the Bisto.

Off-Ration meant it was there when it was there and gone when it was gone. On-ration would have meant it was more generally available. And there would have been a black market for those that could afford.

Main ingredient is wax, either beeswax or paraffin wax, both essential to the war effort.