Yay Dupont!

In less than two years Du Pont captured more than 30 percent of the full-fashioned hosiery market. Then the United States' entry into World War II led to the diversion of all nylon into military uses. During the war Du Pont increased its nylon production threefold, to more than twenty-five million pounds a year; the biggest uses were for parachutes, airplane tire cords, and glider tow ropes. When the war ended and women began to demand nylons again, their demand greatly exceeded supply for two years. The shotage led to several riots by impatient women who had stood in line for hours for stockings. Newspapers ran stories with headlines such as "Women Risk Life and Limb in Bitter Battle over Nylons."

Nylon became far and away the biggest money-maker in the history of the Du Pont company, and its success proved so powerful that it soon led the company's executives to derive a new formula for growth. By putting more money into fundamental research, Du Pont would discover and develop "new nylons," that is, new proprietary products sold to industrial customers and having the growth potential of nylon. This faith seemed to be borne out in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the development of Orlon and Dacron and the continued spectacular growth of nylon. Du Pont had effected a revolution in textile fibers, and the revolution propeled earnings skyward.

In fact, Du Pont, which for its first hundred years had been an explosives manufacturer and had in this century become a diversified chemical company, was by the 1950s, in many respects, a fibers company that had some other businesses on the side.




Hundreds of women wait in line on a cold December morning in 1945 to buy hosiery at a New York City shoe store.

So I was going through propaganda posters and wanted to focus on WWII. I then decided I wanted to research the history of why American women shave their legs, because it is tied into WWII. Here is my research:

1914 - 1918: WORLD WAR I -

GILLETTE works out a mega deal with the U.S. Armed Forces, which provides his safety razor and blades to every enlisted man or officer on their way to Europe as a regular part of their standard issue gear. This creates tremendous worldwide promotion and publicity opportunities for Gillette’s company and products.

Why Women Shave Their Legs and Underarms -

We all know the power of advertising. At the turn of the century, for example, the South African Diamond company, DeBeers, created the image that the diamond was forever and therefore would make an excellent wedding ring.

Another marketing campaign around this time convinced the women of North America to shave their body hair. Notably, women in the other parts of the world do not engage on masse in this ritual. Even in French Canada, the habit is not largely undertaken.

It all began with the May, 1915 edition of Harper's Bazaar magazine that featured a model sporting the latest fashion. She wore a sleeveless evening gown that exposed, for the first time in fashion, her bare shoulders, and her armpits.

A young marketing executive with the Wilkinson Sword Company, who also made razor blades for men, designed a campaign to convince the women of North America that:

(a) Underarm hair was unhygienic (b) It was unfeminine.

In two years, the sales of razor blades doubled as our grandmothers and great grandmothers made themselves conform to this socially constructed gender stereotype. This norm for North American women has been reinforced by several generations of daughters who role-modeled their mothers.

1920s - 1930s -

Popular female HOLLYWOOD MOVIE STARS in the United States are shaving off their eyebrows with razors, plucking, or using depilatory formulas to get a hair-free face. They then "draw" very thin brows back on the face with an eyebrow pencil. Later, these eyebrows will begin to look exaggerated, unnatural and alien-like, especially when seen on a black and white movie screen. Like the brows of actor GROUCHO MARX, who completely shaves his face and eyebrows before drawing them back on with a black grease pencil in rather unusual shapes.

Info came from http://www.quikshave.com/timeline.htm


here is a video about shaving legs that gets more specifically into WWII

Digital Printmaking

Digital Printmaking

Project 1

ma·nip·u·late \mə-ˈni-pyə-ˌlāt\
1: to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in
a skillful manner
2 a: to manage or utilize skillfully
b: to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's
own advantage
3: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose : doctor



I manipulated this picture of the 13 and 15 yr old parents. I'd rather their baby born from a evil lab than from natural birth.


More examples of manipulation:

Propaganda- manipulating people to feel a certain way or join a cause