Pin-up Girl - Feminism and The Pin-up

Feminism and The Pin-up

"As sexual images of women multiplied in the popular culture, women participated actively in constructing arguments to endorse as well as protest them."

As early as 1869, women have been supporters and protestors of the pin-up. Women supporters of early pin-up content considered these to be a “positive post-Victorian rejection of bodily shame and a healthy respect for female beauty.” Conversely, women protesters argued that these images were corrupting societal morality and saw these public sexual displays of women as lowering the standards of womanhood, destroying their dignity and harmful to both women and young adolescents.

It has further been argued by critics that in the early 20th century, these drawings of women helped define certain body images—such as being clean, being healthy, and being wholesome—and were enjoyed by both "normal" men and women; but as time progressed these images changed from respectable to illicit.