---
title: She May Look Clean—But
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/she-may-look-clean-but-1943/
description: A smiling young woman fills the frame over the words 'She may look clean—but'.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![She May Look Clean—But](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/she-may-look-clean-but-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/she-may-look-clean-but-1943.jpg)

# She May Look Clean—But

A smiling young woman fills the frame over the words 'She may look clean—but'. Below, 'pick-ups', 'good time girls' and prostitutes are said to spread syphilis and gonorrhea, and 'You can't beat the Axis if you get VD.' The threat is shown through a face, not a rate, and the whole risk is placed on one category of women.

- **Date:** 1943
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** U.S. government wartime venereal-disease prevention campaign (poster file of the Office of War Information, Bureau of Special Services)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Roosevelt Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=roosevelt-administration)
- **Leader:** [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=franklin-d-roosevelt)
- **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed)
- **Purpose:** [Warn or inform](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=warn-inform)
- **Themes:** [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Regime:** [Roosevelt administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/roosevelt-administration/)
- **Leader:** [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/roosevelt-administration/#franklin-d-roosevelt)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 513618, local id 44-PA-172), via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SHE_MAY_LOOK_CLEAN_-_BUT_-_NARA_-_513618.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work, per Wikimedia Commons) U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
SHE MAY LOOK CLEAN—BUT

PICK-UPS
"GOOD TIME" GIRLS
PROSTITUTES

SPREAD SYPHILIS AND GONORRHEA

You can't beat the Axis if you get VD

VDgraphic—9
```

'VDgraphic—9' is a small series/plate credit printed in the bottom-left corner, not part of the main slogan.

[← Sepsis: Get First Aid](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sepsis-get-first-aid-1943/) [This Is the Enemy →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/this-is-the-enemy-1943/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)
- [時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/situation-in-far-east-tse-tsan-tai-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)