Content note: Shows a woman drawn as a stereotyped street prostitute under a headline linking her to venereal disease; shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Easy to Get... Syphilis and Gonorrhea
A woman in a feathered hat leans on a brick wall at night, cigarette in hand, in a street painted entirely in red tones, under the words 'Easy to get... Syphilis and Gonorrhea'. The fear is carried by the figure and the colour, with no figures or rates given, and the risk of infection is located in one stereotyped kind of woman.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. government venereal-disease prevention campaign (issuer not printed; U.S. Government Printing Office imprint)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. government (issuer not printed; GPO imprint). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-171 (NAID 513617).
Text on the object
EASY TO GET... Syphilis and Gonorrhea [signature: illegible, lower right] [imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-511293]
