Analysis Of V-J Day In Times Square

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The above photo is entitled to V-J Day in Times Square and was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1945. This photograph portrays sailor kissing a young nurse in the middle of Times Square in New York. The main focus of the photographer is on the couple kissing.This photograph has been popularetely interpreted as being a romantic picture, but just few see it as an iconic image of war.In order to analyze in depth this picture a go beyond the typical interpretation of it, I selected an interesting article by Wendy Christensen a sociologist who evaluates this photograph as a symbol of male dominance and sexuality.

According to Christensen ' article this photo has become famous because it seems to represent the happiness of people at the end of
For instance, to support her point she includes an important questioning aspect from a feminist blogger where the blogger questioning the kiss picture; Does a strong man grabbing a woman on the street in a “vise grip” and kissing her describe “wild elation, gratitude and passion”? Or does it describe a case of sexual assault? This blogger argues that people have to pay attention to other more relevant details besides romanticism that impacted a lot of gender roles and the male ideologies behind. This photograph does not capture the romantic moment that we believe it does. After reading Christensen argument and analyzing the picture, I agree with the idea that this photo might represent the power of men over women to the point of consider them as sexual submissive genders only that must serve men when they want. I interpret this picture like this because if we pay attention carefully, there are a lot of details on it that support my perspective. For instance, as we see in the photograph the woman sees to be vulnerable to the sailor that grabbed her brutally in his arms. The woman seems to be helpless and corresponding to the kiss because her arms look down showing not passion for the man. This behavior could be interpreted it as sexual harassment instead of romantic and

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