Woman at the hairdresser. Public domain / mediadrumworld.com

By Liana Jacob

CONTROVERSIAL SCENES from a seventies film have re-emerged showing ways in which women should maintain military etiquette and grooming to ‘look like a winner’.

The quirky film starts off with the narrator talking in a patronising tone, saying that women have come a long way throughout the years with their education, appearance and occupation.

Public domain / mediadrumworld.com

Other scenes detail the need for women in the military to ‘take pride in their appearance’ and that while most women used to find daily showers time consuming, the narrator, again in a patronising way, says it doesn’t take much time at all.

While another shocking scene face-shames a close-up portrait of a woman with unplucked eyebrows, describing her as having a ‘shaggy’ look, while another scene shows a woman telling her hairdresser that military regulations state that women mustn’t have their fringe below their hats.

The scenes come from a motion picture film called Look Like a Winner: Military Etiquette and Grooming. It was produced by the Department of Defence in 1971.

Public domain / mediadrumworld.com

It was made to explain the important points of good grooming; covering cleanliness, health habits, hair styling, cosmetics, and tailoring.

For thousands of years in a substantial number of cultures and nations, women have served in various roles in the military, from ancient warrior women to those currently serving in current armed conflicts.

Fighting on the battlefront was not the only way women were involved in war, some were also nurses and aides.

Public domain / mediadrumworld.com

More recently, at the beginning of the 1970s, most Western armies have begun to accept women to serve duty in all military branches. In nine countries women are conscripted into military; China, Eritrea, Israel, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Norway, Peru and Taiwan.