She-Giants (Olbrzymki) – such is the title of Ewa Toniak’s book about the image of women in socialist realism. In the book, the author recalls, among others, a documentary propaganda film from 195 titled Women of Our Times (Kobiety naszych dni). “Yesterday, the working class gave scraps of human rights to women, today, in the People’s Republic of Poland, a woman is genuinely taken care of by the government”, the film's narrator said. The women of our times are the labourers: textile workers, bricklayers, foremen, and tractor drivers.
Wojciech Fangor’s painting (created one year before the film) bearing the laconic title Figures (Postaci), is one of the most canonical works from that period. It is based on straightforward dichotomies: now and then, on this side and on that one. He tells his audience: you can judge for yourselves which is better.
In the canvas, there are two women. The one of the left hand side is the antagonist: slim, in a fitted, fashionable dress, patterned with English writing (Miami, New York, Wall Street, London, Coca-cola). Her manicured hands, which surely haven’t been calloused by hard labour, hold an elegant green bag. Her face is hidden behind a pair of large yellow-framed sunglasses and make-up. It probably hasn’t been long since she visited a hairdresser. Her outfit is complemented by a bead necklace. She looks important.
Her positive counterpart is a whole different story. Her stance is proud, relaxed, resting one of her hands on her hip, and the other – on a shovel’s handle. She is strong, self-assured, and natural. Under the rolled up sleeves of her jumpsuit we see well-built forearms. The man standing besides here, also wearing a worker’s outfit, holds a shovel or a pickaxe handle in his right hand, and embraces his partner with his left. Both of them are healthy, tanned, and fit. They are not defined by clothes or accessories from the West, but by their tools. Some viewers still joke that the man peeks yearningly at the “American lady’s” cleavage.
In the background, we see a symbolic representation of the effects of these two positions. On the left hand side, there are ruins (let’s remember that the painting was created five years after the war), while on the right, behind the workers, we see a freshly constructed, multi-storey building with rows of windows divided by simple architectonic elements, in a typical socialist realist style. Even the weather in the painting is meaningful. The clear blue sky on the right side of the composition seems to be threatened by the clouds approaching from above the ruins.