American Propaganda
She May Look Clean—But, 1943 US poster: A smiling young woman fills the frame over the words 'She may look clean—but'. Below

She May Look Clean—But

She May Look Clean—But (1943), a VD warning aimed at women

1943 U.S. venereal-disease poster: a smiling woman's face over the words "She may look clean—but." Places the risk on one group of women. NARA 513618.

Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appealScapegoating
Date
1943
Made by
U.S. government wartime venereal-disease prevention campaign (poster file of the Office of War Information, Bureau of Special Services)
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
NARA
NARA 513618
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 , retrieved September 27, 2026
Source
Public domain (U.S. government work, per Wikimedia Commons) U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

Full record at propagandaarchive.org

She May Look Clean—But is a 1943 U.S. government venereal-disease prevention poster held in the Office of War Information poster file. A smiling young woman's face sits above a list naming "pick-ups," "good time" girls and prostitutes as carriers of syphilis and gonorrhea (NARA 513618).

What the poster prints

The archive describes a young woman's smiling face filling the sheet above the headline. Below it, three labels for women are stacked over a single verb, and a final line ties the subject to the war.

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

Transcription in the FRAME record, which notes that "VDgraphic—9" is a small series credit in the lower left corner. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NARA 513618, local id 44-PA-172, via Wikimedia Commons.

Who issued it

The archive credits a U.S. government wartime venereal-disease prevention campaign and notes that the copy sits in the poster file of the Office of War Information's Bureau of Special Services. The sheet does not name an agency or an artist. "VDgraphic—9" suggests a numbered series, and the record goes no further than that.

How to read it

The public-health goal was real. Syphilis and gonorrhea were serious diseases, and a campaign to keep servicemen and war workers from catching them had a legitimate aim. The archive tags this sheet as fear appeal and scapegoating, and the second tag is the one to sit with.

The poster gives no rate, no symptom, no treatment, and no word about the man's own conduct. It shows a pleasant face and tells the viewer she may be dangerous. Every carrier named is a woman. The risk is moved off the reader and onto a category of women defined by how they behave toward men. That was unfair to them and it was poor medicine, because a disease that two people spread was presented as something only one of them carried.

The sheet is also a request, not a regulation. It tries to change private conduct by warning, not by law. A free society can run a campaign like that. It should run it with the facts and without blaming half the people involved.

Another health sheet from the year, without the blame, is Keep Out Malaria Mosquitoes. For the office whose file holds this copy, see the Office of War Information hub. The essay on the Roosevelt administration covers the Office of War Information whose poster file kept this sheet.

Sources

  • FRAME object record, She May Look Clean—But, 1943. U.S. government wartime venereal-disease prevention campaign (poster file of the Office of War Information, Bureau of Special Services).
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, NARA 513618, local id 44-PA-172, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved by the archive 27 September 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work, per Wikimedia Commons).