In 2017, the documentary about Chavela Vargas by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi was shown at the Berlinale. Many media outlets used this photo as a teaser when discussing the screening. The photographer and the time of shooting are unknown. On it, we see Chavela Vargas at the beginning of her career as a singer in Mexico.

In the 1950s, singers like Lola Beltrán almost always appeared in public with lots of make-up and lavish jewellery. In contrast, Vargas appeared without earrings, wore only subtle make-up and tied her hair tightly at the back of her head. This look attracted particular attention in the capital.

Inspired by female soldiers (whom she, like others, could admire in the cinema in the 1950s), she also wore trousers and flat shoes in everyday life and on the street. Some were repulsed by this and labelled her a mannish woman / butch, while others, men and women alike, adored her for it. She did not accept being labelled "macho" by others. For her, the fact that she was female was far more important, regardless of her polarising choice of clothes.

At the beginning of her career, Vargas made her first attempts to dress like her colleagues in figure-hugging dresses with plunging necklines. In retrospect, however, she says that she felt too naked on stage and questions how anyone could sing with this type of clothing. She decided early on to wear the jorongo, a poncho-like wrap that is traditionally associated with the traditional costume of Mexican men and in which she performed into old age. Underneath, she is probably wearing a guayabera (Mexican men's shirt).

The way she presents herself in this photograph combined with the way she sits create a non-typical female pose with an unobstructed view between her legs. The trousers allow her freedom of movement where skirts or dresses would restrict her. The transgression of boundaries, which is also visible in her posture, contributes to her heroine status, as do her love songs to women. Even after her death, she remained a very important figure, especially for the queer community in Mexico. Indeed, Vargas, who felt "like a transvestite" in clothing with feminine connotations, contributed to a lasting expansion of the socially defined boundaries of "being a woman".

The front page of the "Junge Dame" of 23 February 1943 shows an unusual combination of two photos of soldiers and a young female welder. It is accompanied by the title of the newspaper and a black text field.

Photo of the soldiers: SS-PK Immerseel, Welder: Else Nied

The "junge Dame" was published in the German Reich and was mainly aimed at unmarried women from the middle class. It was founded in 1933 and initially appeared weekly, then every two weeks. By 1941, it had a readership of 100,000, with each issue containing around 16 pages of advice for everyday life during the war, such as physical self-defence and advice on love issues. It also provided insights into the entertainment industry and careers for women, such as lorry driver or pilot. The soldier was presented as the ideal partner.

In wartime, men were shown exclusively as heroic soldiers. The soldier photo on the cover was taken by a member of a propaganda company. It follows visual patterns typical of the time, in which the camera and thus the viewers are at the same height as the soldiers depicted. This visual language, which makes the photos look as if they were taken in the middle of the action, served to heroise both soldiers and photographers. Both risk their lives in battle and in reporting on it.

The ring of light around the welder focusses attention on the woman, pushing the soldiers into the background of the page. In this photograph, the contemporary male-heroic perspective of the soldiers' photos at eye level is not chosen. This photograph not only shows a woman, it was also taken by a civilian photographer, whose slightly lowered view casts an admiring glance at the highly focussed worker in an armaments industry. In this way, a woman is heroised by a woman who carries out a profession that was more likely to be occupied by men at the time. By being printed on the title page, this photo gains a wider reach and enters into a visual language that tends to symbolise men by soldiers and civilians by women, even though many men were still employed in armaments factories.

By printing a Hitler quote on the title page, both photographs are placed in an ideological context: Men did their utmost at the front because they risked their lives. Women should not be inferior to them at home; their heroism is shown in their willingness to take up typically male professions. The reference to the First World War addresses the stab-in-the-back legend, which stated that Germany lost the war because there was a lack of support among the population, not only among left-wingers or social democrats, for example, but also among women.

The functioning community of soldiers in battle visualised in the photo above, referred to as comradeship at the time, is also transferred to women in the montage: only if they support the men will their heroic battle be successful and the survival of all be ensured. This, however, also requires a heroic commitment from the women, who are prepared as well to go beyond their usual limits. The focus of the front page is therefore on the female welder and not on the soldiers. Although this heroisation of a woman in a magazine from the National Socialist era is in line with National Socialist ideology, it breaks with our expectations of heroisation from this period and the cliché that women were reduced to being mothers.