COMING TO A WALL NEAR YOU
A brief history of the lady who’s bringing good old-fashioned sexy back

Story by Gabz Ciofani // Photography by Heidi Weber

Almost 80 years since her inception, the classic pinup breathes again.

The term “pinup” was coined during World War II, when American soldiers would pin up pictures of seductive women from postcards, calendars and magazines in their aircraft and bunks. “Pinup girls” refer to the women who appeared on the photographs and paintings — sexy yet sophisticated, not revealing too much and very friendly.

The classic pinup has come full circle, and women’s studies instructor Suzanne Holt has a theory as to why.

“I hope that the classic pin-up is coming back because the new porn-standard for girls and women that took the USA by storm is getting old,” she says. “Although we might be laugh-tracked into thinking a Little Miss Sunshine is funny to watch as she grinds her prepubescent, half-clad body in a pole dance routine designed for comic effect, it’s ceased to be quite so amusing to watch a generation of girls, sisters, daughters, peers, live it out in three dimensions. Perhaps because we’ve actually paused our chuckling over the pathetic spiral-down of Britney Spears, or maybe because it’s not that gratifying to obligatorily flaunt your body or feel yourself reduced to that.”

Whether these reasons factor in, one thing is certain — there are definite signs that the pinup is making her way back to the forefront of pop culture. But where did she come from?

The atmosphere of the 1920s was one of change, setting the stage for the pinup. The 19th Amendment had just been ratified to extending the vote to women, and they began reworking the idea of what was considered appropriate in their own eyes. Women began to push for less stringent guidelines in their lives. Skirts became shorter, dancing became livelier, and women’s sexuality was in the early stages of becoming less repressed.

In the 1930s, the famous artwork of Alberto Vargas and George Petty increased in popularity and Esquire magazine began carrying illustrations and pinup art from the artists on a regular basis. Soon other publications followed suit and featured pinup artwork.

    Although the competition was heavy in the 1940s from other pinup girls like Rita Hayworth and Carole Landis, Betty Grable was undoubtedly the most popular pinup girl amongst American soldiers of the WWII era. With legs that were insured by her studio for $1 million each, Hugh Hefner credits Grable for being the inspiration for his Playboy empire. Grable’s famous bathing suit photo, taken by Frank Powolny, was reproduced on the noses of hundreds of Air Force bombers and is currently featured in Life Magazine’s 100 Photos that Changed the World.

     In December 1953, the pinup took it all off. Playboy’s first issue had Marilyn Monroe on the cover and promised full color nude pictures inside. The magazine printed about 54,000 copies and sold out within weeks. Penthouse, Oui, and Gallery also emerged on the scene to provide readers with modern — mostly nude — pinups. Though these magazines sold well during the 70s, their popularity faded as pornographic films started to define sex and sexy.

    More recently, however, many men’s magazines such as Blender, Maxim and Smooth feature non-nude pinups of actresses or celebrities accompanied by interviews. Even Vanity Fair has gotten in on the act. The switch to clothed pinups has been successful for these magazines and serves the purpose of reminding modern society what pinups were like when they first came onto the scene — clothed, mysterious and still seductive.

“I hope that what this means is that women are looking for a better model to which they may aspire,” Holt says. “One wherein being attractive and, yes, sexy is balanced by the far more substantive qualities of being … intelligent, classy, genuine, respect-worthy, capable and poised.”