I found this interesting because in my American Studies class, we had a discussion about Iconoclasm, the term that describes breaking the myths that we learned as kids. For example, in elementary school, we learn that Columbus was the man to "discover America." However, in high school we learn more about how he took over advanced ancient civilizations in the Americas. As kids, we are sheltered from the details of these stories because they are often very complicated, violent or unjust.
The same thing applies with the "Kissing Sailor." It depicts the happiness after the war ended, but in reality, the sailor was drunk and the two were strangers. I think it is interesting how we automatically want to assume that the story is completely romantic and joyful without looking deeper into the reality of the situation.
The last thing I want to point out is that the blog I have been referring to is centered around feminism. Therefore, it might be very biased and exaggerated the situation to make it seem more like Greta was a victim. This is important to take into consideration, but I still find it interesting to know more about the back-story of the photo, instead of just accepting what you see at the surface.
Becky this blog post was very interesting! I liked how at the end you stated that there was a clear bias in the blog that you read about this topic. It reminds me of the repeated concept we talk about in class, how Arthur Miller states at the beginning of The Crucible that he doesn't cover all of history, and some of his information may be slightly biased or different. I think it's important that you told the reader that, and chose to add it in at the end. However, I still believe that it's interesting that this picture is one of the many examples of an Iconoclasm. The whole concept of Iconoclasm interests me because it's mind bottling to think about how the American public chooses or almost censors children's books and knowledge. America is trying to preserve it's innocence, and create a bright future. At first this concept or sheltering seemed positive, however misconceptions of pictures like "Kissing Sailor" made me question that theory. Iconoclasms such as the tooth fairy or santa claus are lower on the scale of preserving innocence, however these two examples are more used as stories and to encourage an imagination. The "Kissing Sailor" is only a picture, so we have no idea any of it's background information. Due to this, it is hard to determine the circumstances, but I think either way it's not as easy as we thought it was when we were kids, it's not only a romantic war kiss. It's a symbol of relief, happiness, sexual harassment, the ending of the war, etc....
ReplyDeleteBecky, Nice job blogging in general this quarter. You've covered a nice range of topics. Here, I like the way you present a challenge to an "iconic" image. What's missing, though, is the blog you refer to. Why not link to it, quote from it, and analyze its language? It goes without saying that all media might be biased, but why do you assume that a feminist-leaning blog would be "very biased and exaggerated"? Might not the label just suggest a proclivity to topics related to women and fairness?
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