In Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan’s “The Implied Order: Structuralism,” the authors note Claude Levi-Strauss who, “. . . began to see that culture, like language, is a system characterized by an internal order of interconnected parts that obey certain rules of operation” (Rivkin 54). But what happens when you take an established system like men in the workforce—and go against the grain? What happens when the rules are turned inside-out? The answer—beautiful marketing. What makes “Rosie the Riveter” fascinating, is that she is a token—used in a way that went against the established constructs of a male dominated society. The idea of Rosie went against the rules, or order, and established a new language or rule—that women were just as capable as men in the workforce. At the outbreak of World War II, women had no place in a machine shop; who would baste the turkey? Women certainly wouldn’t wear an unappealing handkerchief in their hair; imagine what the boys would think? The poster of “Rosie the Riveter” is a wonderful example of Ferdinand de Saussure’s idea of the phonetic component and the ideational component. The words “We Can Do It!” emit an angry shout off the page. The sound of it attracts both our attention as well as a call to arms. When the eye falls from the rallying words to Rosie’s taught face, flexed muscular forearm, and greasy uniform—the targeted female audience understands that the modern era, or “old language” of female roles in society has shifted with the wind. Rivkin and Ryan note famed historian Michel Foucault, writing, “Focault notices that what counts as knowledge changes with time, and with each change, the place of language in knowledge is also modified . . . according to him, knowledge and perception always occur through the mediation of language” (Rivkin 55). The poster of Rosie the Riveter with its “two faces” or “signs” captures the discipline of Saussure’s semiology beautifully. In their book, Through Women’s Eyes: An American History, authors Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil write, “By undercutting patterns of sex-segregated labor, perfectly symbolized by the poster image of ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ and offering women new independence and responsibilities, it produced significant changes, both in the workplace and in the domestic arena” (DuBois 507). In the end, language, through its phonetic and ideational component, mutated into a “new rule.” The utterance shifted—opening a new door for women . . . one rivet at a time.
Works Cited
DuBois, Ellen Carol and Lynn Dumenil. Through Women’s Eyes: An American History. Boston: St. Martin’s, 2005.
Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan. “The Implied Order: Structuralism.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 53-55.
