Iconicity - Part Four

[findingjuliet]

Since my images have leaned a little toward the morose or reserved, I thought I'd mix it up today.

Comments

[torberg]

"Sexual Harassment"

She is clearly not into the kiss.

[findingjuliet]

maybe not -- they didn't even know each other. he just grabbed her apparently.

[torberg]

I know; I've heard that too. That doesn't make it any better in my eyes. How would you feel if some random guy you don't know grabbed you, put you physically off balance (he's supporting her weight), and kissed you?

I don't think that's the kind of behavior to promote.

[wendywoowho]

In Times Square, in New York, on a day of celebration? Hell, that's why I GO To Times Square!

I love this picture. I love the emotion of it. I love the romantic idea that everyone was so overcome with happiness that Insert Life Affirming Act Here was spilling onto the streets.

And, yeah, I say that with some proper ambivalence. I've been sexually assaulted; people manhandling me w/o permission? Not okay! But...

...for me, this picture isn't about that.

[lariel]

Aw, wow, that picture actually brings tears to my eyes. The good guys do win sometimes! (which includes there being good guys and things not being so damn complicated you want to scream)

Different Times

[yancentric]

One Edith Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt in the late 1970s claiming to be the woman in the picture.[5] Shain was working at Doctor's Hospital in New York City when she and a friend heard on the radio that World War II had ended. They went to Times Square where all the celebrating was and as soon as she got off the subway, the sailor grabbed and kissed her. She thought she might as well let him kiss her since he fought for her in war. Shain did not tell the world who she was until many years later when she wrote Eisenstaedt a letter. Subsequently they became very good friends.

No doubt it'd be bad form now, but I don't think the words "sexual harassment" would've come into anyone's mind at that point in history. The point of the war ("the fate of the free world") was far less ambiguous than any war since, and from every old person I've ever spoken to about it, national unity brought people together in ways we can't understand. Trying to ascribe modern sensibilities and decorum to the picture is misplaced from some and faggy from others

Re: Different Times

[yancentric]

true. looney toons portrayals of japanese were still clearly "racist" even if they made sense in context of both the ongoing war and america's less socially evolved way then of looking at other cultures/peoples.

based on the woman's own recollection of kissing back someone she inherently respected for fighting for her, and the reaction of the other people, men and women, I don't think "sexual harassment" came into anyone's head at the time.

the revisionist analysis isn't always wrong -- the japanese internment camps were clearly fucked up no matter how many "you had to be there" protestations old people might toss out. i don't think this picture calls for the same kind of revisionism though.

Re: Different Times

[koomologist]

I agree it's not enough to revise the history of the picture, but I could see how people now would look at it differently than the generation that was there. So as far as first impressions go, they both seem legit.

[treyhawk]

Yea. Have to go with the crowd and say "Sexual harrassment" as well.

Man, have times changed since then.

[chickenhat]

The Gaelic is "Slan Abhaile", usually said to the person leaving, but literally translated means:

"safe home"

Each word applies here, "safe" and "home".

The only other picture that equals this is the Norman Rockwell painting "Homecoming", but as a painting it's "fictional".

War is over. We can celebrate openly in the streets for a while, and the boys are home. No STDs at the time, and showing a random stranger an act of love wasn't immediately turned into a case of inappropriate behavior.