As Seen by Both Sides: American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War

MAY STEVENS
With her Big Daddy series May Stevens created a symbol for the bullheaded, unreasoning male who bought, without question, the government line on the war in Vietnam. Many of her feminist friends, however, saw in the Big Daddy a broader statement. With his elongated, bullet-shaped head, he is an icon of male power, a phallic image.

"The series started with a portrait of my father, who was pro-war and pro-establishment,...in which I showed him as a middle American in his undershirt, with his arms folded against his chest, and a blank television screen behind him. I expressed my disappointment and anger with my father and those like him. They were the people supporting the war."
From an interview with Lois Tarlow
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BIG DADDY PAPER DOLL, gouache on paper, 21 x 35 inches, 1971
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BIG DADDY IN SHORTS, gouache on paper, 30 x 22 inches, 1970
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