America's Changing Icons

Acknowledgments
Prelude
Introduction
Chapter One: Columbia and the American Girl During World War I
Chapter Two: Wonder Women Fetishes and Fantasies
Chapter Three: Redesigning the 1950s American Woman
Chapter Four: Bra Burning and Other Misdemeanors
Chapter Five: The Gulf Wars and the Changing Light
Images
Selected Bibliography
About the Author

Babic treats the development of the patriotic feminine, always white, from the goddess-like Columbia to the war-supporting Rosie the Riveter through the many transformations of Wonder Woman. A reworking of Babic’s dissertation, the book examines these figures through the lenses of contemporaneous advertisements in popular magazines, posters, editorials, and journalism. Babic begins with the iconic Columbia, the self-sacrificing "American girl" on a pedestal, and goes on to consider Rosie the Riveter as a patriot who labors for herself and her country. Even Wonder Woman, introduced in 1941, has numerous identities that fit the times. No single image of the patriotic feminine ideal emerged after WW II—the US became more multifaceted and conflicted in its views about women and their roles in family, work, politics, society, and war. Babic discusses women’s liberation, the unsuccessful campaign for the ERA, and even the Gulf War, ending with a postscript on the film Wonder Woman (2017). Scholarly notes appear at the end of each chapter.



Summing Up: Recommended. Graduates students, researchers, faculty.