....the current tendency to look at past events through today's political lense(:-)) is getting really tiring.
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I mean... I just have no idea what you're seeing to suggest she's into it. She isn't embracing or trying to embrace him with either hand/arm. Her left fist is clenched. There is nothing here that remotely implies consent or even enjoyment to me. It's subjective, I guess, but I don't see it at all.

That said, before I heard her story about it I never gave it a second thought cause I never really looked. Why would I? Hell, I assumed they were a couple. Now that I have, the picture supports her side of things pretty clearly, IMO.
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What's political about thinking it's appalling to grab a woman and kiss her against her will? I think if most posters on this board saw this happen in front of them they'd intervene on her behalf. I understand it was a different time, but that doesn't mean that we should build a statue glorifying it as something it wasn't. Hell, they even put flowers in her hand in the statue. I mean, WTF?
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you're applying today's view to yester years;s. you're overthinking it.

....and men wouldn't step in on her behalf then? C'mon, man.

You must have no clue how much the country endured during WWII. how the woman had to replace the men in the factories. TONS of sacrifice.

George wasn't thinking about sex...George was thinking celebration.

I can only imagine the atomic bomb sigh of relief that the country felt in that moment. It's why the picture is so iconic.

Swear to God, every kind of relationship in this country is going to be damaged due to this kind of BS.
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Clearly the nurse was trying to rape the poor guy. She, like so many women do, pull the guy on top of them so, after they rape him, they can claim assault...

:-)
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Your ability to gather all that from a still photo is quite outstanding.

If you were shown the last known photo of someone missing, could you give us an idea where they went or what happened to them? :-) :-) :-)
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This is perhaps the best explanation of it. He wasn't intending to attack her, and it was just a spontaneous expression of joy. I don't think of the guy as a villain or criminal at all, just as a guy who made a social faux pas.

The problem, though, is that it was still an assault if she wasn't a willing participant. The artistic image itself is so perfect as an expression of joy at war's end that her situation got glossed over for decades. It's really unfortunate from her perspective and from history's perspective that it went down like it did.

And I hate saying it's an assault because that makes it sound like much more than it is. It's not fair to people who experience much more. So that part's overwrought. But I kind of think, what if I was standing around at some historic event and some skanky hag of a woman grabbed me and kissed me, and then the picture became famous all over the world as the two of us celebrating? I wouldn't be very happy about that. This is kind of the 1940s equivalent of becoming an unflattering meme.

There's also some interesting moral story here that I can't quite enunciate. We're celebrating the defeat of someone who wanted to rule and control us by grabbing a woman and kissing her against her will. It's a portent of the upcoming civil rights and women's rights battles as the next "war".
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Is there nothing that #metoo can't infect?
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Revenge of the Nerds likely being #1 on that list.
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Blazing Saddles
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Man this country is turning into a bunch of douches. She obviously wasn't expecting the kiss...the guy kissed her in joyous celebration...and despite the surprise, it looks like she harbored no ill will considering the circumstances...and it made her famous and gave her something interesting to talk about for the remainder of her life. Do anyone think all the people smiling in the background are smiling at a woman being assaulted? Ridiculous.
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Friedman had mixed feelings about it.[6] "It wasn’t my choice to be kissed," Friedman stated in a 2005 interview with the Library of Congress.[7] "The guy just came over and grabbed!" she said, adding, "That man was very strong. I wasn’t kissing him. He was kissing me."[8] "I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this tight grip," Friedman told CBS News in 2012.[9]"
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Yup, I find it hard to believe this woman was harmed in any way.
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Is a waitress who has her ass groped by some passing patron in a crowded bar harmed?

Is it assault regardless of whether or not she was harmed?
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One of the greatest films ever made.
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