What do the bicycle, pin-up girls, and Marilyn Monroe have in common?
The phenomena that is pin-up girls tell the story of how war, markets, and sexuality shape society and norms. Often thought of an art form for our “fighting boys” in World War II, the pin-up in truth precedes Work War I. Surprisingly the pin-up came about thanks to the bicycle. With the advent of the bicycle women found freedom of getting from point A to B without relying on a man to get them where they were going. However, the anatomy of the bicycle was not made to allow for floor length dresses. Women started to wear more functional and form-fitting pants, highlighting their shapes skirts once kept hidden.
Ministers and doctors campaigned and worked to stop the spread of the bicycle claiming “safety” – women could damage their fragile internal structure. In discarding floor length skirts and petticoats for bloomers, the artistic inspiration surrounding the female form would take new forms. In 1895, Life Magazine illustrator Charles Dana Gibson changed the future of women’s fashion with images of what he saw as the personification of feminine ideal beauty. Illustrations of well-endowed women with hourglass figures and full lips became known as the Gibson Girl, which Charles considered to be the composite of “thousands of American Girls.”
These pictures would run in Life Magazine for the next 20 years. Quickly the “Gibson Girl” inspired imitators and different versions of the Gibson Girl were found in numerous magazines. Along with Life Magazine, in the late 1800s the calendar was starting to be used as an advertising tool. In 1903 Cosette was placed on a calendar and the “calendar girl” was born. The Gibson Girls, calendar girls, and numerous imitators were so fashionable the government decided to make use of their popularity. The now familiar pin-up had its beginnings in 1917, when the Wilson administration created the Division of Pictorial Publicity during World War I. The government found sex sells as well as recruits soldiers to fight overseas. After World War I the propaganda efforts increased when the U.S. entered the second world war. At that time, pin-ups were found in recruitment materials, posters and calendars promoting the purchase of war bonds. World War II has been considered as the golden age of the pin-up numerous illustrations were commissioned to help raise soldier morale. The images included patriotic themes along with day to day activities – the ideal of what women did in their daily lives.
The most famous pin-up was Bettie Page who was able to traverse the transition from illustrated pin-ups to photography. Page is considered to be the most photographed and collected woman in history. Once the phenomenon moved from illustration to photography Hugh Heffner created a self-made dynasty around the pin-up. In 1953 he launched Playboy Magazine with the soon-to-be superstar centerfold on Marilyn Monroe. Heffner found success with the magazine and pushed the medium further and further.
Recently the pin-up art form has found a resurgence in the Vintage, Rock a Billy, Classic Car, and Retro cultures. Pushing the art form even further to include people of color, all body types, and those society would see as not “sexy” previously. For the past 125 years the pin-up has helped shape, for good or bad, what the ideal woman is supposed to be in society. The next 125 years will bring even more changes to this wonderfully flexible artform.
