Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons

by Lynn Peril

Deluged by persuasive advertisements and meticulous (though often misguided) advice experts, women from the 1940s to the 1970s were coaxed to "think pink" when they thought of what it meant to be a woman. Attaining feminine perfection meant conforming to a mythical standard, one that would come wrapped in an adorable pink package, if those cunning marketers were to be believed. With wise humor and a savvy eye for curious, absurd, and at times wildly funny period artifacts, Lynn Peril gathers here the memorabilia of the era — from kitschy board games and lunch boxes to outdated advice books and health pamphlets — and reminds us how media messages have long endeavored to shape women's behavior and self-image, with varying degrees of success.

Vividly illustrated with photographs of vintage paraphernalia, this entertaining social history revisits the nostalgic past, but only to offer a refreshing message to women who lived through those years as well as those who are coming of age now.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Womens Studies, Womens, Gender, Sociology

235 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Lynn Peril was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1985. She writes, edits and publishes Mystery Date: One Gal's Guide to Good Stuff, a zine devoted to her obsession with used books (particularly old sex and dating manuals, etiquette and self-help books and health, beauty and fashion guides) and other detritus of popular culture, especially that concerning gender-related behavioral prescriptions. Mystery Date is currently taking a well deserved hiatus, but will return some day (or so she hopes - in the meantime, visit the archives). She further explores these issues in her book, Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons (W.W. Norton, 2002), a pop-culture history of the perilous path to achieving the feminine ideal.

A Pushcart-Prize-nominated writer, Ms. Peril's column, "The Museum of Femoribilia," appears in Bust magazine. Her essays and reviews have appeared in London's Guardian newspaper, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and Hermenaut among other publications. Lynn Peril received her M.A. in History, with a concentration in Gender, from San Francisco State University, 1995. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, Johnny Bartlett, and two cats (well, eight if you count the ferals).

Reviews

[Spider the Doof Warrior · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book today. It was extremely interesting. I can't believe people back then DOUCHED with LYSOL! Were they insane? They shoved these silly ideas about being a woman and being a man down people's throat. It was as if every ad was laced with some sort of arsenic.
I hate that whole idea of women having to act weaker and dumber in order to make men feel stronger and more masculine. Why couldn't people just be themselves?
Because underneath all of these instructions about how a woman should behave was capitalism demanding that people buy all of these products to be the perfect woman to meet the perfect man and have perfect babies and spend spend spend.
Who could LIVE up to those standards though? No one could. No wonder we have so many problems these days, if this is what our grandparents and parents had to live with.

I'll revise this when I read this book again, which will be the rest of this week.

Also, it's not as if things are different these days. Just look at those ditsy rules books and those Men are from Mars books. Some people fit these stereotypes, but what about mutants like me who get all queasy over pink, including the cover of this book.
Yuck. Pink and yellow DO NOT look good together.

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a selection for my feminist book club. i had already read it shortly after it came out because, as i say in every review i write of lynn peril's books, she used to write a zine called "mystery date" & it is practically impossible for me to not read books written by former zinesters.

this book is fabulous, although maybe not a great choice for a book club. lynn describes "pink think" as the feminine social conditioning that is laid on girls & women from the very moment that they are born, conditioning them to strive to conform to society's gendered expectations in everything from grooming to dress to career selection to consumer choices...you get the picture. lynn is very interested in what she calls "femoribilia," or the material artifacts that display or contribute to pink think. she means things like old women's magazines encouraging women to give their wartime welding jobs to the returning vets now that the war is over, advertisements warning women that their husbands may leave them if they don't safeguard their "daintiness" through regular douching, board games that engage little girls in pretending to date & fret over boys, etiquette manuals that purport to help young women snag a husband, & even comically sculpted & pointy brassieres or rubberized pregnancy corsets with garter belts & corsetry to really help suck in the baby bulge.

all of this & a lot more is addressed in the book, & lynn is both hilarious & pointedly feminist in describing it all. it's a great book, but let me tell you, it doesn't generate a lot of useful discussion at a book club comprised of women born in the 70s & 80s. but that's no reason not to read it!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at how society defined, and then reinforced, femininity in the 1930s-70s, but mostly focused on the 40s-60s, with an epilogue about today. The author looks at advertisements, magazine articles, and books written for and about women to argue that to be feminine was to be a submissive homemaker and wife, and that that 'norm' was intentionally reinforced through education and marketing for the entirety of a woman's life - from birth through marriage, she was expected to act like and be treated a certain way. It is really interesting to see how these norms were enforced (and how it was thought necessary that they be enforced) at each stage of a woman's life: baby- and childhood, in school, as an adolescent, as a bride, and as a wife. It made me want to simultaneously clean my whole apartment (because of the ads and articles she quoted - I am that impressionable, I guess), and throw out everything pink and frilly I own in an act of rebellion.

[SaЯRah Muhammad]

This book is positively brilliant. It is likely that even the most well-educated feminist will learn new and horrifying things from Pink Think. My blood pressure went up several notches.
I would like to point out one thing, however, something which the author herself addressed: things haven't changed. In my opinion the only thing that has clearly changed dramatically are women's career opportunities, but we are still expected to keep a happy, clean home, raise children, and keep hubby sexually satisfied. While reading this book with the TV on, I was struck by the similarity between today's ads and those presented in Pink Think (cleaning products - nuff said.) Rather than coming away from this book thinking that you have it so much better than your baby-boomer mother did, allow it to open your eyes to the hilarious propoganda in the present.

[Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fabulous book.

I love non-fiction and sociology related books, so it's no surprise I enjoyed this one. It's a study in gender roles, particularly the 1950's-70's. As an almost 28 year old, I have never felt that being a female has in any way limited me. I've never believed my sole or main duty in life was to get married and have babies. However, in reading this book I realize how close we are in history to that type of attitude.

Peril's book focuses on advice books, games, pop culture, and advertisements from the time period to show how women were viewed. And it is depressing. Both men and women were treated as if they had no brain. A woman's job was seemingly to trick a man in to marrying her and then popping out a passel of babies. And men? Their feelings could be hurt by their wives' dishpan hands.

Some of the interesting tidbits: In 1959, 47% of brides were under the age of 19. (!!!!) (Today the US average is 25 for females, 27 for males.) But in case you did get a college education, it wouldn't go to waste as "housewives were occasionally called on to give book reviews to the PTA." And remember ladies, it wasn't enough to be pretty and smart. You must be dainty too.

This book helped me understand where my grandmother is coming from sometimes. (Though I have to admit she's never once asked me when we are having kids, so she has shown some remarkable restraint.) I've always realized she's from a different world, but all the examples in the book really showed what it meant to be a young housewife in the 40s and 50s. The choices for women then seemed so limited. Interestingly, about 20% of married couples today do not have kids (by choice or infertility). This number is double what it was just 20 years ago. Clearly, when given the choice, women are making different decisions.

Anyhow, this was a really interesting, yet horrifying read. I can't understand how women were treated as such simpletons and how they were allowed such little independence. Yikes.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

an inventory of "femoribilia" demonstrating how women were taught to be women from the (she describes, for example, a lot of advice books and advertisments, but also toys/games, home ec books, and other miscellany of material culture)
it's historical, but infused with personal anecdotes and sarcasm, so an easy read

[Dawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt bi-polar reading this book. Laughing one minute and wanting to really cry the next. Frightening stuff! I loved it.

[Chris Webber · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating book! The author takes us from the time when the color pink is first associated with females in the early 40's and shows how the image of the feminine has been shaped in the media. She uses the most amazing examples of how women have historically framed their entire identity according to how they are perceived by men. In the submissive role, they lived in fear of somehow offending the man/men in their lives by doing everything by speaking her mind, not being attentive enough, all the way to having an unsightful feminine hygiene smell that was causing her man to neglect her.

I cringed many times in this book. Tips like this from 1961 where Betsy McKinney told ladies in the Ladies Home Journal that "for women sexual activity commenced with intercourse and was completed with pregnancy and childbirth. Therefore a woman who used contraceptives denied "her own creativity, her own sexual role, her very feminity." Furthermore McKinney asserted that "one of the most stimulating predisposers to orgasm in a woman may be childbirth followed by several months of lactation." (pg 6, Pink Think)

Or how about this tidbit from Fascinating Womanhood in 1963 (written by a woman named Helen Andelin who majored in home economics at BYU and who, incidentally, should also be taken out and shot) who says "your husband wants to be the king-pin around which all activities of your life revolve. Nothing gives him a more enjoyable sense of power and manliness than such supremacy. Wives need to remember, however, that from a practical standpoint it is impossible [for hubby] to place her first, and she has no right to expect it." If she disagreed with hubby's dictates, the FW practiced "childlike anger...the charming and shoy anger, spunk and sauciness of a little girl." She stamped her foot, tossed her curls, and said "Well, so this is the way you treat your poor little wife who works and slaves for you all day." Of course, Andelin realized that some men severely mistreated their wives, but 'often men's ugly and cruel actions are the woman's fault." Likewise, if hubby spends "unnecessary time away from home, you have probably driven him to it by your unsympathetic attitude."

Oh goodie.

The media, the games, the clothes, the books, the portrayal of the ideal woman. It was all very cringe-inducing for me.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in feminine studies.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The full-page ad that graced women's magazines in 1958 was so discreet as to be mysterious: a pink-suited socialite posed atop San Francisco's Russian Hill, while her servants carried a bevy of pink gift-wrapped boxes from her car to her fashionable apartment building.

From board games and toys for little girls to home ec classes and puberty filmstrips for teens to guidebooks and advertisements for women, the message was clear to everyone that women needed to "think pink." Just because someone was born female did not mean they were nearly feminine enough that came with years of training, starting in the cradle, to be delicate, beautiful, and completely dependent on men. From the 1940s to the 1970s pink fever overtook the nation as women were forced into the mold of submissive housewife. Lynn Peril has collected memorabilia from this era and tells the story of womanhood in the mid-20th century.

I had read the author's College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-eds, Then and Now and highly enjoyed it, so I was very interested to read this book. It was a very interesting read and a little scary at times, especially since some of the advice in the guidebooks from the 1950s (a woman's only job is to make her husband happy, women are to hide their intelligence around men) are being echoed in guidebooks today. The pages are full of ads from the era, including ads for china and silver in teen magazines (apparently it was never too early to start packing a hope chest), which added quite a bit to the story. I liked the organization of the chapters and the quotes that began each chapter. I also liked that the author included a chapter on the "blue think" that young men were dealing with, it showed that women weren't the only ones being forced into a mold.

I found this book very informative and entertaining. I recommend it to any interested in women's history, especially mid-20th century.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book quite a bit-- it's a slightly fluffy, enjoyable to read book on a brief period in (white) women's history. It reminded me a little bit of the Feminine Mystique, only less dense.

I learned some new things from this book, and found its analysis of home economics programs and their history really fascinating, especially since Phi Kappa Phi recently published an entire Forum issue dedicated to honoring home economics.

Some of it is a little "duh" but the book is well-written, and I could see it being useful to someone who is just exploring these concepts. Even for someone like myself, who has read other works of this nature before, I found it useful and enjoyable.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 stars

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining read that explores the 20th century messaging (through advertising and advice guides) directing women to marry - or perish. That may not be exact...it may have been more about complete, perfect femininity and learning to be the perfect wife, but in the end that's the goal.

I was a little disappointed when Lynn Peril admits to owning ridculous amounts of lipstick and being married. She talks about resisting the how-to-snag-a-man messaging in her early, tomboy days, and I made the leap that she was a non-traditionalist in marriage, too.In my head she was very butch and approaching these subjects almost as an anthropologist would see a culture - completely removed from herself. But I guess if she was that butch, this subject wouldn't have interested her in teh first place. And then - why should I place any judgement on her status or lipstick anyway? Isn't that just my own value system clouding my view of other women's chocies?


What will I remember most from this book? The chapter on feminine hygiene - especially the directives to douche, douche, douche or you'll lose your man. Agent of choice - Lysol. Yep, THAT Lysol. To put that kind of chemical agent into your vagina, in order to protect your husband (and husbands were the only men allowed) from anything that doesn't conform to "dainty" expectations is incredible.Even now, in this crazy age of information, women (and men) are confused by our bodies and can be persuaded by ridiculous ideas. Imagine the 1950's and the lockdown on sexual health information that women had to navigate.

A good read, and I have 2 of her other books - Swimming in the Steno Pool and something about Co-eds - waiting on my bookshelf!

[Efox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stocked this book while working at the UI bookstore and decided it's pink cover and amazing insert of color illustrations featuring mid-century ads and pictures of games like "Mystery Date" and "Wow: the Fast Action Pillow Fight game for Girls" was too interesting not to get. Re-reading it I still found it as entertaining and, in some cases, absurd as I did the first time.

Lynn Peril surveys the many conflicting media messages about what it means to be "feminine" between the late 1930's and 1970's and keeps a light tone and is often hilarious in her assessment of the propaganda. "Pink Think" about how to behave, the importance of home making and catching and keeping a husband, how to be a good mother, a good hostess, how to dress, how to do your hair, what beauty products to use and the way consumerism will make you happy, dominated women's magazines, advice columns, advertising, and books. This is a great, thought provoking, and funny, look at the messages women have been fed about everything from make up to marriage to working and includes pop culture insights into what a conflicting and confusing messages about what it meant and still means to be a woman in America.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has ever struggled to understand the conflicting advice given to women or has ever wanted to learn more about the pop culture of the 1940s -1970s.

[Liaken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating look at mental hygiene (mental hygiene is "The branch of psychiatry that deals with the science and practice of maintaining and restoring mental health, and of preventing mental disorder through education, early treatment, and public health measures," or telling people how to think and behave in order to be socially acceptable) for women during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It is very disturbing, and also very complete. The layout of the book was perfect; font choices, page layout, art, everything were chosen specifically to enhance the feeling of reading a mental hygiene book. The author uses a lot of direct quote, but she uses it very well, so that the reader gets a good idea of the original work without interrupting the flow of the book. If I could take off half a star, I would, for the last chapter. The final chapter is where she starts talking about how there is still a lot of mental hygiene going on for women. I had been waiting for this chapter. But it felt like her deadline must have loomed up quickly, because it felt like a rough draft without the same careful depth of thought and analysis found throughout the rest of the book. It was a pity. It was all ready to make a powerful, current point. And missed.

[Runey1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lynn takes vintage books, advertisements, and recordings from the 1940's through the 1970's to demonstrate how gender socialization, or "pink think" as she calls it, changed and invaded every aspect of popular culture. Lynn punctuates most of her chapters with a light-hearted wit and sarcasm, and a lot of the writing seems to have a tone of mild affection for these pieces of nostalgia, even as she points out how absurd they really are. The overall effect is that she can skewer these antiquated views of femininity without alienating the reader.

I would have liked her to demonstrate more how these attitudes have carried themselves into present day instead of only devoting a chapter at the end where she discusses The Rules (Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider) and The Surrendered Wife (Laura Doyle). It would be helpful to readers who wanted to explore modern day gender socialization if she'd been a little more explicit in drawing conclusions towards modern attitudes about men and women.

That being said, for what it was - an examination of nostalgia - it was excellent. I'm hoping I'll get to read her book College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and Now next.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teens Today bluntly told readers in 1959 that "[w]hether you're an airline hostess...or a secretary, you know that eventually you'll want a husband, a home, children. That's just how it is: you're a woman."

Laugh-out-loud funny, sad, and terrifying, this is an important book that will stick with you long after you've finished reading.

Pink Think reminds us how few opportunities our mothers and grandmothers really had--society expected them to emerge from the school system by immediately pairing off with mates and reproducing, such mindless behavior which can also be observed among mayflies during their breeding season. After that was accomplished, successful women then could be expected to buy things until they died.

But before today's women get too snicker-y over the 1950s attitudes, the author reminds us that things still haven't completely changed. While women are no longer advised not to enter the workplace lest they damage their feminine image, there is the pressure both families and society still place upon women to be "successful" domestically.

[Miina · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you just read the first two pages of each chapter, you can pretty much surmise the rest of the book. While Lynn Peril does a truly fabulous job of throwing example upon example at the reader demonstrating the pervasiveness of "Pink Think" - how consumerism was used the social dictates of feminity to sell products, she utterly fails to offer any kind of analysis of where, when why and how Pink Think originated and was allowed to perpetuate so massively. Page upon page of regurgitated ads and quotes from so-called guidebooks does not a good analysis make. I was hoping for a more academic tome when this book was selected for book club so I admit my lack of love for it has to do with short-shrifted expectations.
The two stars are given because it's obvious the author has spent countless hours amassing this information and because I think it helps provide the current generation with a contextual understanding of our mothers and grandmothers.

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting factual book. The author has an extensive collection of "Pink Think" propaganda... articles, games, advertisements, etc that motivate women in the 20th century to be good wives, mothers and how to be feminine. I could not fully understand the author's opinion of these items. Her biggest concern was around the lack of factual information on sex as it relates to birth control and preventing diseases. But I liked that we were missing her opinion - it allowed me to review the facts and take on my own point of view. Made me think about all the articles and quizzes I read in Teen and Seventeen magazines and what they were really trying to tell me... of course it didn't work - I am almost 30, unmarried, no kids and have been "living in sin" for about 7 years now... opps. :)

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an awesome book, at times hilarious but incredibly disturbing. It just goes to show that there was no such thing as "the good old days." Of course, advertising still plays to girls' and women's insecurities, with very destructive effects. Unfortunately there are still plenty of women who are making themselves sick and crazy trying to live up to an idealized image. In some ways the more things change, the more they stay the same. But that book did make me thankful for living in this time, and for all the women who worked so hard to change things. At least we have a lot more choices now, and at least we can look back on those relics from the 50's and laugh.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited when I saw this book! I have a zine from the author from when I was in high school. It was called "Mystery Date" and the outer covers were done on pink paper. The articles inside include information about feminine board games from other nations (Sweden's Droom Telefoon, anyone?) and a lengthy article on the medical horror and mystery surrounding menstruation. It is all done lightly and hilariously without losing the point which is What are People Thinking? It's like Where the Girls Are by Susan Douglas but covering all pop culture rather than just media. Highly recommended!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually a very interesting book! I think it had been used as a textbook in a women's study course or something, because there were several notes in the margins, etc.

It is amazing how far society and women have come in the past 40 years. Little girls used to be groomed for marriage and motherhood, now we try to groom them to be good people and learn how to take care of themselves..but, do we really ever quit waiting for that Prince Charming to come?

I highly suggest this to anyone who wants to be horrified of what life would have been like if we had been born 10-15 years earlier!

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wish this book was entirely laughable but too much of the views herein are still in vogue in some circles. Peril does a great job looking at how society defined femininity and imposed it on girls, teens and women (while blithely asserting it wasn't imposing anything because femininity was so totally innate) with fiction, how-to books, magazines and lectures on "feminine daintiness" (douching — with Lysol, god help them), the risks of college and a job destroying your womanliness, and advice on how every woman's real purpose in life was to find a husband to boss her around. Horrifying in spots but fascinating.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

a book about how the media marketed to girls and women back in the day (40's, 50's etc) and the conditioning of girls vs boys. its a really interesting read, i liked it because its not the current talk about like the britney affect, it'll talk about when mattel made the first train marketed to girls and it came in bubblegum pink but wouldnt sell cause girls didnt want a pink train, they wanted a real looking train. its a good book and has some great nostalgic pictures of ads, now that i think of it i dont think i ever finished it, i should go read it again.

[debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

the things women have put up with throughout time! Communism lurking in the shadows waiting to spring up through an unmarried, unfeminine woman...lysol as a feminine product...the craziness of it all is captured in this book...a really good and thought provoking book which made me wonder if we've come that far really. we're still being told that we must be thin, blonde, and young to nab a man...(none of that applies to me)...i recommend this book to everyone curious about what a woman would put up with the get to Mr. Right...it even has a chapter on men and how pink thinking affected them...

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not usually interested in reading historical stuff, but this was actually a fascinating account of not-so-common feminist history. I really enjoyed all of the bizarre tidbits like pink being a gender neutral color till the 50's when it became associated with women and girls or how Lysol had once been a multi-use chemical for cleaning houses and douching. Really can't imagine that one and it pains me to think about, but it's a fascinating book. All the photos are very cleverly paired with the content. Definitely an interesting read.

[Georgene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a horrific travel through my coming-of-age. My husband read it and thought it was "amusing". I read it and it brought back many memories of growing that up until now, I had mercifully forgotten.

To put it simply: young girls and women were supposed to force themselves into a certain "feminine" mold in order to get a husband because life without a husband and children was not worth living. GAG ME! By the way, I DO have a husband and 3 children. But what this book brought back to me was the mind set in the '50's and '60's growing up in a small town where you conformed OR ELSE.

[Kristen Northrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book for me because I never took any sort of women's studies, sociology, etc in college. This is written at a very general public level. Think James Lileks. It's anecdotal rather than analysis. Which is what I wanted. It was entertaining. In a 'oh how could they?' sort of way. One of those books where I jotted down page numbers of particularly amusing bits, for passing along later, and ended up with rows and rows of numbers.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book I picked up cheap from a used book store. I definitely enjoyed reading it; there are tons of cool pictures and examples of all the things in our culture that manipulate us to think a certain way from a young age. I didn't give this book a higher rating because there was not really anything new that I learned in it. So perhaps this book is best for people who are just starting to learn how consumerism and the patriarchy tie in together.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book that I read in my Women's Lit class. Its was meant as a text, not a story its a study/review of gender assignments in society (marketing, art, etc). It even talks about toys and games. It was very interesting and I went through and underlined the hilarious presumptions from the 1950s about women's needs wants and desires.

I always think of the movie Mona Lisa Smiles when I hear things out of this book. Its a good one.

[Inder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read most of this in the middle of the night while taking care of my newborn baby boy, which was a bit ironic (or something). It's an entertaining and sometimes disturbing tour of vintage 1940s-1970s magazines, advertisements, charm, and home ec books, and the way they educated women in gender roles. While I enjoyed the awesome quotes, I felt that the book was lacking in subtlety - the author simply sees all traditionally women's work as drudgery, and never analyzes this more deeply.