Pin Up! The Subculture
Negotiating Agency, Representation & Sexuality with Vintage Style
Summary
Dangerous. Sexy. All-American—or rather All-World—Girl. Pin Up! The Subculture is the first book to explore the contemporary international subculture of pin up, women (and men) who embrace vintage style, but not vintage values.
Award-winning filmmaker and author Kathleen M. Ryan spent more than five years in the subculture. It’s a world of cat eye makeup, carefully constructed hairstyles, and retro-inspired fashions. But it’s also a world that embraces the ideals of feminism. Beauty, according to the pin up, is found not in body type or skin color, but in the confidence and sexual agency of the individual. Pin ups see their subculture as a way to exert empowerment and control of their own sexual and social identities—something that is part of the pin up’s historical legacy.
This lavishly illustrated book includes interviews with more than fifty international pin ups and helps readers to understand how they use social media and personal interactions to navigate thorny issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, sizeism, and other difficult topics. Ryan demonstrates how even within subcultures, identity is far from homogeneous. Pin ups use the safety of their shared subcultural values to advocate for social and political change.
A fascinating combination of cultural history, media studies, and oral history, Pin Up! The Subculture is the story about how a subculture is subverting and reviving an historic aesthetic for the twenty-first century.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Curious Case of the Pin Up
- 2 Circuits of Community
- 3 Remaking Marilyn
- 4 The “F” Word
- 5 “Symbolic” Resistance or a Less Toxic Feminism?
- 6 Let’s Talk about the Confederate Flag in the Room
- 7 “Go Eat a Cheeseburger,” “Gorditas,” and Other Sizeist Fandangos
- 8 Negotiating Representation
- 9 When Best Intentions Go Awry
- Epilogue
- Index
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. The Curious Case of the Pin Up
Chapter 3. Remaking Marilyn: The Pin Up and Contemporary Vintage Re-appropriation
Chapter 4. The “F” Word: Visual Pleasure, Agency, and Feminism
Chapter 5. “Symbolic” Resistance or a Less Toxic Feminism?
Chapter 6. Let’s Talk about the Confederate Flag in the Room: Intersectionality in Pin Up
Chapter 8. Negotiating Representation
Chapter 9. When Best Intentions Go Awry
FIGURES
Cover:Broderick, Sheila. Bang Bang Von Loola. 2014. Sheila Broderick Photography. Frederick, CO.
←ix | x→Figure 1.4. TuPu Art. Diamonds. 2017. TuPu Art/The Urban Pin Up. London, UK.
Figure 2.1. Facebook v. Instagram followers by country.
Figure 2.2. Facebook v. Instagram followers by city.
Figure 3.4. Court, Romain. Angelique Noire. 2015. Angelique Noire. Los Angeles, CA.
Figure 3.5. Court, Romain. Angelique Noire. 2017. Angelique Noire. Los Angeles, CA.
Figure 3.6. Toon, Leon. Candace Michelle. 2015. Candace Michelle/Black Pinups. Dallas, TX.
Figure 3.7. Why Moments Photography. Juwita Pohan. 2018. Juwita Pohan. Jakarta, Indonesia.
Figure 3.8. Meow, Miss Alice. Self Portrait. 2018. Taipei, Taiwan.
Figure 3.11. Richmond, Paul. Stop, Shop and Drop. 2010. Paul Richmond Studio. Seaside, CA.
Figure 3.12. Richmond, Paul. Blast from the Past. 2010. Paul Richmond Studio. Seaside, CA.
←x | xi→Figure 6.1. Running, Nicole. Sindy Seylon. 2018. Classic Pictures and Sindy Seylon. Omaha, NE.
Figure 7.1. Doll, Emily. Screenshot of Self-Portrait “Photo Shoot Done, New Video Shot.” 2014. Emily Doll—The Vintage Doll. Facebook photo, https://www.facebook.com/TheEmilyDoll/photos/a.533848380021703/693817454024794/?type=3&theater.
Figure 7.2. Doll, Emily. Screenshot of Video “This is My Response to All of the Negative Comments Made about My Last Photo Post of Me in a Swim Suit.” 2014. Emily Doll—The Vintage Doll. Facebook Video, https://www.facebook.com/TheEmilyDoll/videos/693966680676538/.
Figure 8.3. Carlson, Marissa. The Time Bombshell. 2017. Marissa Carlson. Los Angeles, CA.
←xi | xii→ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project would not exist without the consultations with Maria Elena Buszek, Mitzi Valenzuela, Louis K. Meisel, and Khyentse James, who helped in the initial development and production of the feature film and interactive documentary film Pin Up! The Movie. Mitzi and Khyentse specifically introduced me to women within the subculture and for that I will be forever grateful.
I also am indebted to the pin ups, photographers, and other members of the subculture who welcomed me and shared their time, insight, and images, and who allowed me to follow their interactions within the community both online and in person over a period of six years.
Thank you to the supporters on Kickstarter and Seed & Spark who helped make this project a reality.
Details
- Pages
- XIV, 272
- Publication Year
- 2020
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433156823
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433156830
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433156847
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433156816
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433156809
- DOI
- 10.3726/b13648
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2020 (September)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2020. XIV, 272 pp., 48 b/w ill.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG