Image icon

Iconic images are very prevalent in American history, and are still being used as major icons in everyday life. Of course, most everyone in America has seen the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter. Back in the 1940’s, Rosie was to encourage women to join the work force, while the men were away at war. Today, Rosie is taking on a new iconic role for many feminist women.

The connotative interpretation of Rosie is that she is a symbol for the second wave of feminism, which most people classify her as today. While Rosie is an important figure in the feminist movement, she was never meant be a symbol for gender equality, but rather just about labor relations. The feminist women of the 60s and 70s gave her a new meaning, and reshaped her intended purpose from just being a form of propaganda. Even though Rosie was never meant to be about women’s equal rights, she developed into something that would greatly empower women everywhere.

Today, Rosie has become an Internet and pop culture sensation. There are posters of the iconic image and you can even go on YouTube to learn how to do costume tutorials to look like Rosie. There are even pictures of celebrities dressing up like Rosie, and she has even made it into several TV shows. (Parks and Recreation)

Michael Shapiro, “Is an Icon Iconic?” Linguistics Society of America 84, no. 4 (2008): 815- 819, Accessed January 18, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071104