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Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture
Maria Elena Buszek
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Description for Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture
Paperback. This richly illustrated history of the pin-up since its birth more than 150 years ago reveals how the development of the pin-up is intimately connected to the history of feminism Num Pages: 464 pages, 103 photographs (incl. 9 in color). BIC Classification: AC; JFFK; VFVC. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 233 x 158 x 27. Weight in Grams: 694.
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 ... Read morenever 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.
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Product Details
Publisher
Duke University Press
Place of Publication
North Carolina, United States
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
About Maria Elena Buszek
Maria Elena Buszek is Assistant Professor of Art History at the Kansas City Art Institute and a regular contributor to Bust magazine.
Reviews for Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture
“Pin-Up Grrrls is a funny, sexy, political take on the pin-up. In this book, women flaunt their sexuality, use images of themselves to their own ends, and remake the pin-up genre in endlessly creative ways.”—Susie Bright, author of Mommy’s Little Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn, and Cherry Pie “Pin-ups that women love? That they create? Yes! In her brilliantly vibrant ... Read moredebut book, Maria Elena Buszek gives a lucid, rich, and thorough account of a nineteenth- and twentieth-century history in which women employ the power of erotic imagery to celebrate themselves. From the writing to the reproductions, Pin-up Grrrls is eye-opening.”—Joanna Frueh, performance artist and author of Swooning Beauty: A Memoir of Pleasure “Pin-Up Grrrls is a great read, and its treatment of the evolution of iconic images of women over the last two centuries will interest students of popular media, women's studies, and feminism as well as art history.”
Leigh Ann Wheeler
Journal of American History
“Pin-Up Grrrls is an exhaustive chronicle of the pin-up from its stage, street, and screen origins to the postmodern feminist pin-up, and its storied relationship to feminism in the United States. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in feminism, history, art history, feminist art, histories of sexuality, or popular culture.”
Chadwick Roberts
Journal of Popular Culture
“Pin-Up Grrrls is ultimately a tale of the feminist reclamation of female sexuality as much as it is the story of the pin-up. With great historical consciousness and painstaking research—and without falling back on tired old stereotypes of pro- or antiporn feminists—Buszek stakes a thoroughly convincing claim that feminism is a political movement that has always championed women’s sexual agency and that is sure to appeal to grrrls and womyn alike.”
Rachel Fudge
Women's Review of Books
“Buszek not only provides us with an encyclopedic historical entomology of the pin-up but participates in a potent ongoing reaction to Clement Greenberg’s Adorno-esque pre-World War II condemnation of kitsch. . . . From the slippery issues of pornutopia and female fetishism, from The Bridge Across My Pussy to queer monsters, she-devils and fierce funny feminism, there can be few books as usefully provocative as this for an undergraduate or graduate class on feminism, popular culture and art history.”
Jonathan Zilberg
Leonardo Reviews
“Buszek takes us on an academic journey through 150 years of saucy, socially aware images and their repercussions on the mainstream. For those of us who thought that reclaiming sexuality in the name of feminism was a fairly new concept, this is a great introduction to the revolutionary beauties of the past.”
Catherine Plato
Curve
“Buszek’s academic background in art history allows her to convincingly dispute the notion of the pin-up as merely objectifying women, and her selection of archival images is a feast for the eyes. . . . BUST readers will still no doubt devour this intergenerational exposé of how strong women asserted themselves, their whole selves—including those lovely legs, bodacious busts, and devilish derrières.”
Amanda McCorquodale
Bust
“By revealing that feminists from all eras have celebrated their sexuality through the pin-up, Buszek leaves readers with renewed respect for female sex icons such as Bettie Page, Sandra Bernhardt, and Lydia Thompson. Pin-up Grrrls also helps put today’s newfound pop culture obsession with pin-up culture . . . in context.”
Jessalynn Keller
Nylon
“In Pin-Up Grrrls, feminist art scholar Buszek optimistically traces the development of feminism and the assertion of female sexuality in the public sphere through a well-illustrated focus on a 150-year history of the female pin-up. . . . Through meticulous research, presented in a chronological narrative structure, Buszek demonstrates the complex interaction between the pin-up and the historical contexts in which it articulates female sexuality.”
Hillegonda C. Rietveld
Feminist Review
“Using the pin-up as an interpretative lens for probing complicated issues of women's sexual agency, Buszek offers a fascinating and lively . . . history of the American women's movement and its engagement with popular culture. Pin-Up Grrrls features ninety-four figures, many of which appear for the first time in print and provide ample visual support for her argument. . . . Buszek has tackled an enormous subject here, and her book should interest anyone looking for an overview of historical developments in feminist thought and female representation.”
Marlis Schweitzer
American Quarterly
“With Pin-Up Grrrls, Buszek provides a unique blend of art, cultural, and women’s histories that will engage a wide and diverse audience.”
Rachel Epp Buller
Woman's Art Journal
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