Kairos: If Russia Should Win

Communism is a threat to American society, that is what the government needed to convince its citizens of. Though there were no physical battles being fought by men and guns, a war of ideals was taking place. This propaganda poster “If Russia Should Win” urged Americans to condemn Communism because their way of life was at stake. The Soviets had already converted several other countries and if America was not careful, they would be next. This poster urged its audience to act through presenting a beautiful woman being held under the boot of a giant communist and the phrase “...many men would be sterilized”. This essentially implied that Americans could not be considered men if they stood by and did nothing while foreigners came to take their women. Now was the time to act and to reaffirm their American values. Now was the time to stand up and protect their women. Now was the time to face communism. This poster created exigency through fear, and it seemed to have worked

- Oliver Argueta

Comments

  1. Kaitlyn FrancisOctober 4, 2017 at 4:20 PM

    This poster came at a vital time during the scare of Communism and definitely created fear. It is interesting that the people who made this poster created and published it at a time where the wave of feminism was occurring. While it was a social norm to undermine women and many propaganda made them the victim or inferior, as the poster shows women as being inferior to men since it showed how men need to step up against communism, there was still a prominent women's movement that was starting at the same time.

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  2. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 5:16 PM

    This poster emphasizes how a man's masculinity was defined by their power over women. One way to interpret this poster is that men weren't doing anything to fight communism, but they would start simply because their wives would be taken by foreign man. I think it's ironic how the poster indicates that women would be "helpless" in the hands of other men when in the 1960s their rights were deprived either way.

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  3. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 5:54 PM

    Your last couple of sentences where you repeated "now was the time" was extremely effective in portraying the poster's intent towards Americans. It portrayed how the Americans would feel when they saw the poster in the 1960s and would most likely prompt them to act against the communists and protect their rights.

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  4. AnonymousOctober 4, 2017 at 6:53 PM

    You make the good point that this type of rhetoric is useful because it puts a face behind ideas like capitalism vs communism or us vs russia. This allows people to connect and see the idea in better light by having a human figure they can connect with and place their ideas on

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  5. aaliyahthepoetOctober 5, 2017 at 6:46 PM

    When I first read that line "many men would be sterilized," I thought they meant that literally, as a scare tactic. This same kind of message and imagery is seen in a piece of propaganda I studied in high school, except it focused on soldier recruitment: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj3g9-G8NrWAhVi_IMKHRj3BdEQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.learnnc.org%2Flp%2Feditions%2Fww1posters%2F4964&psig=AOvVaw2tVfQJcTtuOQd1gD-ZNNpa&ust=1507340716934048

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