From the early 1800s into the mid to late 1900s, pin up girls were a phenomenon of soldiers and civilians alike. The Pin Up era intended for posters of models to be hung up on walls, hence the term “pin up.” The typical pin up girl had “the rosy cheeks, bouncy curls, hourglass figure” (Frank, 2014). They started with advertising posters featuring the woman’s body in pants instead of long skirts, thus allowing the female form to be shown. This is where the obsession with legs began. Although this was as minor shift in women’s clothing, it caused major controversy. The mainstream culture of this time had never seen anything such as a woman’s legs being revealed. By wearing pants instead of skirts, it made the woman more sexualized but also more masculine because during this time period, pants were only associated with males.
Moving from there, the advertising became more enticing, showing more leg and sexualizing women more so than before. These ads are used in calendars in which the pin up models are called “calendar girls” (Frank, 2014). Using calendars as a way to advertise was a seemingly genius marketing strategy because it would be a year long ad. However, the first calendar didn’t do as well as thought to have. In 1903, the calendar market began to rise (Frank, 2014) and since then there has been multiple calendars with this theme of nude or partially nude woman.
Marilyn Monroe was considered one of the most beautiful women in the 50s and 60s. She was an actress and sex symbol with one of the most famous examples of an hourglass figure. She had both fans and critics. After wearing a low cut red dress to a party, a columnist called her “cheap and vulgar,” and in response to this, she posed in a potato sack, still looking absolutely stunning (Marilyn).
Interestingly enough, Marilyn Monroe posed nude once and the pictures were sold to Western Lithograph Company, a calendar company (Santiago, 2016). Then comes the invention of Playboy introducing a whole new level of pinup. In the first issue, Hugh Hefner, purchased the nude photos of Monroe from the Western Lithography Company and used them in the magazine as well as placing her on the cover in a slightly risque jumpsuit. Eventually near the 1950s, the sultry pictures in the magazine exceeded the popularity of the pin up girl, where it had begun. Thus leaving the pin up girl to be collected instead of produced.
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