Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture

by Maria Elena Buszek

Subverting stereotypical images of women, a new generation of feminist artists is remaking the pin-up, much as Annie Sprinkle, Cindy Sherman, and others did in the 1970s and 1980s. As shocking as contemporary feminist pin-ups are intended to be, perhaps more surprising is that the pin-up has been appropriated by women for their own empowerment since its inception more than a century ago. Pin-Up Grrrls tells the history of the pin-up from its birth, revealing how its development is intimately connected to the history of feminism. Maria Elena Buszek documents the genre’s 150-year history with more than 100 illustrations, many never before published. Beginning with the pin-up’s origins in mid-nineteenth-century carte-de-visite photographs of burlesque performers, Buszek explores how female sex symbols, including Adah Isaacs Menken and Lydia Thompson, fought to exert control over their own images. Buszek analyzes the evolution of the pin-up through the advent of the New Woman, the suffrage movement, fanzine photographs of early film stars, the Varga Girl illustrations that appeared in Esquire during World War II, the early years of Playboy magazine, and the recent revival of the genre in appropriations by third-wave feminist artists. A fascinating combination of art history and cultural history, Pin-Up Grrrls is the story of how women have publicly defined and represented their sexuality since the 1860s.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Art, History, Photography, Gender, Cultural Studies

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Maria Elena Buszek is a critic, curator, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado, Denver. She is the author of the book Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture, also published by Duke University Press. She has written for magazines and journals including BUST, Art in America, Photography Quarterly, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely freakin brilliant! Buszek put words to so many of my own thoughts and queries, then backs her theories with incredible research and an innovative approach.

She begins the discourse with an examination of neglected feminist figures like 19th century actresses Sarah Bernhard and Adah Isaacs Menken, immediately rooting her consideration of feminism in popular culture rather than academia. She follows this captivating course through the 20th century, into the present day with bold understandings of the importance of women like Madonna, Cindy Sherman and Annie Sprinkles. As we trace this historic trajectory, Buszek articulates the concerns and views of the third wave in a manner that validates and buttresses those interests. She provides invaluable insight and critique to numerous feminist issues, but does not reprimand or denounce. All the while the author forges a new, more comprehensive and illuminating view of feminism and its history.

A must read for anyone interested in third wave feminism, pin-ups, sexuality and popular culture.

[linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I hope that my choice of the popular pin-up will encourage this discourse as it relates to both activist and academic feminists, popular and privileged imagery, across not only generations but also cultures and classes."

-You have to read the first chapter: Defining/Defending the "Feminist Pin-Up" to learn what "this discourse" is. I enter the quote as I am not ready to review the book, yet super-pleased to find a reminder of what I think of as Ms Buszeks' sincerity in acting as a sort of bridge... toward unification? To an awareness and acceptance of our strength? I'm not sure yet...

[May · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great book examining female sexuality in America especially as it relates to mass and personal representation via the pin-up. If you're interested in the ways this medium has been used to both liberate and define female sexuality, then you need to read this book.

[Sarahjane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too dissertation focused at parts, but an astute and brisk history.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading Pin-Up Grrrls, I was vaguely aware of the early era of photography, silent films, and the early feminist awakening therein. And like many, I associated the word pin-up with the Barbie-proportioned male-gazed cheesecake nudies of the 1940s and beyond. But in Maria Elena Buszek's thorough history of the genre, you get to learn there is so much more! Pin-Up Grrrls shows off a wealth of female-driven and female-created images from the mid 1800s onward, starting with "cartes de visites" of famous theatre actresses to promote their own careers. These early photoshoots demonstrate women as actors in their own lives, commanding respect and flaunting their sexuality.

The book continues through time, providing an alternative history of images of women, particularly those created to demonstrate women's newfound independence in the Western world. Of course there is a place for that "traditional" pin-up, the "Varga girl" (also a fascinating history in itself), but Buszek places these images in the context of their disruptive power to portray an assertive female sexuality, rather than their use for male ogling. This is put in stark contrast to the males-only culture of publications like Playboy and Hustler, where women were purposely portrayed as nonthreatening and vapid. When you see the difference, you won't continue to lump all pin-up pictures together.

The first half of the book was more interesting to me simply because I knew less about the history of rabble-rousing Victorian actresses and outspoken flappers, but I also appreciate the survey of more modern takes on the pin-up (the cover is a wonderful example), even though it becomes more art-world esoteric at times. But on the whole the book is an entertaining and well-researched read, which has pointed me in the direction of some wonderful feminist visual arts.

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although published by a University press, I admit that I was hoping that the author would have a little more fun with her subject--after all, we are talking about pin-ups! Buszek traces the history of the pin-up from the Gibson Girl to today--and includes some great pictures--but I was rather disappointed in the overly dry and academic tone of this book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buszek does a good job of weaving the origins and development of the pin-up with the history of feminism, despite the enormity of the task. For the most parts the aspects that get less notice make me interested in finding out more rather than blaming Buszek for a lack.

[Mary Elliott]

I might have to try again on this one. It was fascinating, but definitely a 'textbook' read. I don't always have patience for that type of writing. I'll try again. There were pictures, so that's a bonus in the textbook format! I'm a simpleton, what can I say? It's not her, it's me.

[Kate]

Fabulous history -- lots of technical, professor-speak. Still working my way through it.

[Milisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

fuh.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read on the history of pin-ups, very enjoyable and interesting.

[Advocata Diavoli]

but of course!

[Lesley]

Not finished, but on hiatus at present

[Yve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book :)

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

ILL from the library

[C.S. Poe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctoral thesis, Pin-up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture by Maria Elena Buszek is a thoroughly well-researched and fascinating account of the history of American pin-ups as they existed within the realm of pop culture, and the paradox they created in both defining female sexuality for the male gaze and the liberation of it by feminists.

Beginning with the carte de visites and how the stars of burlesque and theatre incorporated the new art of photography into their promotional methods, women of the nineteenth century like Adah Isaacs Menken (photographed by Sarony in New York City, who would also be crucial in the marketing of Oscar Wilde) and Lydia Thompson amassed successful careers through the wide distribution of their carefully and purposefully tailored images. Posed in risqué attire such as “britches roles” and “half costumes,” they also circulated images of themselves in smart street clothes to accurately portray the three-dimensional women that they were. From there, Buszek takes us into the turn of the century and the rise of the New Woman, as brought to life in popular culture by Charles Dana Gibson, of the Gibson Girls. (Gibson was a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York City, where some of his Gibson Girls art is on display.)

Buszek continues this walk through history with dedicated space to queer photographer Frances Benjamin Johnson (of Alice Roosevelt’s portrait, fame) before bringing the reader into the world of early Hollywood and the actresses made famous by film fan magazines and their overwhelmingly female audience relishing the non-traditional sexual roles being portrayed to them both on and off screen. But with the rise of the Hays Code and start of World War II, this is where the most well-known pin-up was born: Anthony Vargas’ illustrated Varga Girls.

Buszek takes considerable time exploring feminism’s second and third waves, both as distinct individual movements, how they clashed with other feminist movements co-happening like anti-censorship and anti-pornography, as well as how they conflicted with each other and the criticism, hostility, and misunderstandings existing between the generations. She includes the wildly important third wave movement of the riot grrrls and one of its unintended leaders, Kathleen Hanna. Buszek is able to so easily articulate the concerns and frustrations of young feminists born into a world their mothers fought for, while validating older leaders’ concerns with the reminder from Phelan, “in these days of hideous fundamentalism, the capacity to acknowledge ambivalence is revolutionary.”

This is a massively useful primer for anyone interested in not only the history and usage of American pin-ups, but for anyone who wishes to learn more about the women who began feminist movements, the queer and WOC who were left behind—only to fight back with a vengeance—and the art that was created in these pushes for rights and equality. Buszek did an outstanding job with this book.

[Esme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Al fin termino una lectura que me tomó casi dos meses principalmente porque no estoy acostumbrade al lenguaje académico y menos en inglés. Maria Elena Buszek hace exactamente lo que el título sugiere, establece un paralelo entre el pin-up y la evolución del movimiento feminista a través del arte visual en su representación más fácil de replicar hasta llegar a una forma relativamente reciente de representación del movimiento con las riot grrrls, todo esto de una forma tan orgánica que se siente apenas natural. Qué bueno que hayan personas que notan estas particularidades y que hacen el esfuerzo de transmitirlas al público en general, me alegra haberme encontrado este libro por accidente en la biblioteca de mi universidad y que me haya animado a leerlo por mi afinidad con el movimiento y por mi temprano interés en el pin-up desde que en mi preadolescencia escuché del estilo en un programa de tatuajes.

[Kate Cornfoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came for the illustrated history of the pin-up... and I left with a FAR greatest understanding of the history of feminism and its relationship to art. This is quite the academic read and I didn't fully realize going in, but the elegant, insightful way Buszek navigates the trajectory of women's art in the last 100 years or so made for quite compelling reading. My core angst as an artist who identifies as a feminist is how to explore and celebrate the sexuality and sensuality of women, without pandering to the male gaze, and without getting torn down by (generally) older, establishment feminists. Buszek hasn't solved this conflict in her book because, as she elucidates, it is an ongoing evolution and a symptom of the plurality of feminisms that happily exist today.

[Sam Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly research history of where pin up imagery came from and how it evolved. Very interesting read.

[corky · Rating 4 out of 5]

geat cultural history of the pin-up