#postcard art
Another collage postcard! This one with some sweet vintage stamps from my mom.
On hold
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First World War postcard art by Douglas Tempest, who added a little bit of sexiness to the sexist worry that women would not return to their homes after filling jobs left by men serving in the trenches. The homophobic theme also recalls conservative anxieties about the suffragette movement.
A century later, Tempest’s work has been appropriated by feminist and queer activists to celebrate the changes feared by the artist: women pursuing careers and becoming more bold in expressing their romantic and sexual orientations.
War often brings a relaxation of moral standards, something Tempest took advantage of in this play on the meaning of censorship. The implied nudity would have been shocking in mainstream popular art prior to the weakening of Victorian prudishness.
The “surprise” of not being censored may not refer as much to the content of the post card as the freedom illustrators such as Tempest were gaining to tiptoe toward slightly salacious imagery.
Nazi propaganda leaflets attempted to revive fears about infidelity during the next war, but the new threat was American soldiers, not lonely lesbians.
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