American Misogyny Rebranding Soviet Movies

Algorithm

The Soviet Posters look badass. Our Women Comrades deserve badass representation that is not overly sexualized, that shows their strengths and determination.

Feminism and patriarchy feel like such foreign concepts to me as a Russian woman. Not only are Russian men chivalrous, but I just cant imagine splitting Russian society into male and female. We have always done everything together since the beginning. When we were farmers, men plowed and watered the field, and women collected the harvest and refined it. In the cities, men worked jobs while women became tailors, cooks, secretaries, while also working some trade. In Soviet era women were teachers, engineers, managers, scientists, artists. There were a lot of female engineers, just in my family alone. Also managers. And there was no Affirmative Action. Many women were managers and supervisors because it was believed that women were more organized, and they are.

Damn. Aside from the treatment of gender, just comparing the design and art quality of the posters, both soviet examples are strikingly beautiful and make perfect use of the color limitations of the highly reproduced medium of ad prints. The US posters are trying so hard to make it look like a movie you would have already seen, not to mention a fair bit of just ‘graphic-design-is-my-passion’ ugliness. Soviet film and visual arts are such a treasure. I don’t even think the most dogmatic anti-com ideologue denies it.

CLEAR DIFFERENCE

What’s the background music in this?

May have to watch this movie.

Woman don’t belong in wars, I would never Let my wive do such jobs, she shouldn’t need to work she shy have a comfortable life and take care of our kids.

this also speaks volumes about what this war was to soviets and to americans

Reminds my of chinese censorship of japanese manga, they cover up the cleavage and get rid of the over sexualisation of women when possible. Based asf

I guess in soviet union man and women were equally miserable.

The point of this video is that you believe wartime propaganda?

You can tell how in the american posters, the women were drawn looking less strong, less determined, and the title has a completely different feel.
In the soviet ads, one of them is placed front and center. The women there look determined, strong, and aren‘t sidelined as much.
In the american posters, you can also see how the women were both sexualised but also drawn in an odd way, making them seem like less.

Not really any difference. You just complaining over something that doesn’t matter

Sorry but I don't understand

You should make a video on the Russian liberation army

Better dead than red, unironically.

Everything every second in the US is so pornographic it is really disturbing. Or it is self-flagellating austere Puritan sexlessness. Can't decide which is worse but at least the latter isn't in every single internet, TV, music, game, billboard...

It's so sad & desperate, pitiful anti-socialist propaganda.

What those movies won't tell you is that those women (all women in the ussr in fact) would use cotton and newspapers instead of tampax and toilet paper, because there was no tampax and toilet paper in the ussr up until the 90s. Also, most women didn't shave. I would argue that the ussr was a misogynistic institution, since it failed to provide women with the necessary hygiene products.
There was a hilarious story about how a russian ballet troop visited the states. The government usually allowed artists to perform abroad to promote a respectable image of the ussr, but under the strictest supervision of course. And one of the ballerinas risked stealing like 50ish toilet paper rolls from the hotel (maybe she bought them, i don't remember exactly) before heading back to mother russia. And when she was asked to open one of her bags for inspection, all of that toiled paper literally exploded out of it at the airport. Imagine the shame.
I really wish people like you actually lived in the ussr. All delusions would be gone.

the soviet posters also just look way cooler

We literally do this today. The ussr was 70+ yrs ahead of its time

The direct translation is actually "frontline friends (specifically female)".

Hearts of Iron 4 recently made a trailer from the Soviet perspective that actually respects the USSR rather than sprinkling it with anti-Soviet propaganda.

If you look closely, the ending scene also features a female sniper in the ranks, which pays homage to the fact that many women did take this role in the Soviet army during WW2 (and the USSR had more women in its ranks than any other Allied nation). It's a fact that's often overlooked, so it's nice to see the devs did their research.

It's such a great trailer that it feels like it would've been a very effective army recruitment ad if the USSR still existed, or if it was made during or shortly after WW2.

Honestly? I like the Russian posters/ads better.

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩⭐️✊👍✌️❤️😍

Soviet artstyle and aesthetic is so unique and unmatched.
I really love this abstract yet clear artstyle.
Abstract in it's colours, but clear in it's characters.

Wow v interesting.

New subscriber to your channel, glad you mentioned the Winter War. Do you have any content on that war with Finland and the soviet context behind it? Thanks!

Both movies are propaganda pieces that belong in the trash heap of history.

The soviet ones are pretty dignified in that they are neutral in their portrayal. You could swap out the woman for a man and it wouldn't be too different. The american ones have so much sex appeal that they are ridiculous.

Tactical boob windows go back a long time!

Another great example is the space programs, one of the first people to ever go to space was Valentina Tereshkova in 1963, meanwhile in the US it wasn't until the 80s even though they had trained all women space crews with the Apollo sqauds. Interestingly the only cool thing Jeff Bezos has ever done was take one of these women on his little trip to space. The soviets definitely had issues with how they treated women, once again with the space programs example it was like another 20 years before they sent another, but clearly better then the US. I've also heard alot of the best snipers in the Winter War and WW2 were soviet women

How much of the difference in portrayal can be attributed to requirements on modesty in visual media at the time in the USSR?

Misogyny complaints from a muslim woman arent worth much, youre still just a slave loving your chains.

And of all the misogyny that actually exists in American media, this is what you have a problem with? A poster that an advertiser made to be more engaging and keep with style of the time? I mean the USSR one looks ok but not as exciting and to an American moviegoer a foreign film is always a harder sell so I don't blame them for using marketing tactics. A real issue would if they changed the actual movie to remove any feminist or communist themes You know like how muslims censor out any instance LGBT characters from American movies

a great comparison is ''women's mags'' from the same time. The capitalist world showed us how to become the idea of a woman by consumption centred around our appearance, while the USSR's ''cover girls'' were women who were actually advancing society. Showing that we can do the same careers as men under fairer economic circumstances.

Yessss this is exactly the kind of analysis i'm looking for, which is really hard to find in today's climate unfortunately

The portrayal of women in the majority of soviet art is something that never fails to make me so incredibly happy. The way they portray women as strong without their power relying on their sexuality and at the same time not making strength synonymous with manhood/proximity to manhood is something I've yet to see replicated in any media today (if anyone has any recommendations PLEASE let me know.)

Nice

What's the background music? It sounds beautiful 🥲

Really disappointed how they downgraded the female characters fighting in the Patriotic War to free their homeland to some bimbos

You're right.

islam and communism are diametrically opposed

Is it the same film in both cases or did the US "fix" yet another Soviet film by making it more sexist, etc?

The Russian name actually literally means 'Frontline [Female] Friends'. The phrase can be interpreted as friends or girlfriends; depending on the context.

EDIT: this got me interested, the US film appears to be a remake of the Soviet one, and both involve romantic stories, so the friend/girlfriend ambiguity probably is intentional in the Russian version.

Well it's a colder county so they have wrap up warm

That's not misogyny misogyny would be putting women down for being women America glorifies women's sexuality

Because here in the United States they use woman as a sexual tool more than anything while the USSR glorified woman for their contributions in the war effort, factories, and the proletariat cause. And they say Democracy frees woman, no, democracy enslaves woman while the USSR freed woman.

i own that hat in your first picture! (well that type of hat)

Does anyone remember that Netflix show Queen's Gambit? When the US pretended a fictional female chess grandmaster was the only woman who found succes as a chess player while ignoring all the real soviet women who were chess grandmasters? I think this shows just how much mysogony and anti communism (they tend to walk hand in hand in my experience) are still hegemonic in american media