Sexy feminist- it’s not an oxymoron its a
living, breathing movement.
For some reason
there are people out there who believe that a
woman dressing provocatively means she knows
nothing about feminism and is asking to be
raped (I won’t name names, some of them don’t
even know who they are). This post is a
collection of pinups that stand for feminism
and correlate with a larger story than their
image. Ladies, gentlemen, feminists; Meet the
sexy, powerful women who believe in equality.
Rosie the Riveter - Make Pride Not
War
You can’t have a
post about feminist pinups without
Rosie
the Riveter. The problem, for me, is
that Rosie was originally painted under
the slogan of support of the war effort.
I made a public promise not to support
war and | keep my promise and talk about
Rosie the Feminist. You see, back when she
was painted, the poster was just one of the
many
J.
Howard Miller’s series. Today,
however, it has become a feminist icon,
symbolizing women’s economic equality,
through the satisfaction of
self-sufficient labor.
Femenisting - Repairing Hot Rod
History
“Mudflap Girl”
(sounds bad already) was designed by
Bill Zinda of Wiz Enterprises in Long
Beach, California, to promote his line
of truck and auto accessories, in the
1970’s. The buxom silhouette became a
piece of Americana and is still seen on
trucks today. Thelma & Louise would
have the first crack at a trucker with
“bad manners”, but the fantastic women,
men and transgenders of
Femenisting take
it one step further. Be sexy and give
all them mud flappers the finger!
Anonymous Vintage Feminist
Pinup
Isn’t she a rare
beauty? I found her in a phenomenal
article by
Maria Elena Buszek,
Say
Cheese(cake):
“Reflecting the chaotic climate of
fin-de-siècle culture, the genre grew to add
a feminist model known as the “New Woman” to
a growing cast of popular images of
sexualized womanhood. As embodied by Charles
Dana Gibson’s illustrated “Gibson Girl”
pinups, the New Woman, like the burlesque
pinup that preceded her, was an aggressively
modern sexual ideal.”
The NSRC, where I found the image, say it’s a
Gibson Girl. It looks like one, but I don’t
know if he did color. If anyone knows
something about this gorgeous vintage find,
let me know.
Lara Croft - Sultry Self Reliance
Say what you will about Lara’s extra large
breasts, fact is- this virtual woman got male
gamers to play as a female character (as
this interesting article tells). Now
that’s what I call subversion from within
The truth is, miss Croft
was originally a guy, but similarities
to Indiana Jones were creating the
threat of a law suit. Thus a sexy
self-sufficient explorer (with huge tits
that would break her back at her eensy
waist, were she real) was born.
Classic Feminists - Pearl Frush and Joyce
Ballantyne
It wasn’t easy being a woman
painting women, in the mid 1940’s. You had to
give what the customer wanted.
Joyce
Ballantyne and
Pearl
Frush are not only women that paint
women, they are women with a message.
Among the regular, girlie art, these
women managed to paint some real
feminist pieces:
Frush, herself the outdoors type, drew active
pinups doing everything a boy could do.
Ballantyne had her own reoccurring theme,
that would give a new perspective on women’s
sexuality.
Charlie’s Angels - The Original Ass
Kickers
Before Lara croft, there were Charlie’s
Angels:
“one of the first shows to showcase
women in roles traditionally reserved for
men… Three women... graduated from the
police academy only to be assigned such
duties as handling switch boards and
traffic. They quit and were hired to work
for the Charles Townsend Agency as private
investigators.” ~Wikipedia
Reading the entire Wikipedia
article, you’ll quickly realize there were
many non-feminist factors to the show, but a
revolution doesn’t happen over night.
Charlie’s Angels would be updated for our
times. Though I’m sure the new film creates
new debate between feminists, whether this is
just more of that jiggle entertainment, or
wholesome feminist values, without a doubt,
this movie was taking on the girl power
identity (
Interesting
article on the subject).
A New Twist on an Old Theme
Edward
Runci had a feminist streak of his
own, with the classic piece, They’re
Easy to Handle. A bold statement about
women’s sexuality, in a time when “good
girls” didn’t have any. Neo pinups have
been a delight and a horror. When done
wrong- trashy, demeaning and sometimes
violent. When done right, however-
beautiful, full of humor and empowering.
To the left- the right way. Beautiful
woman, cheeky smile, knowing expression,
fantastic tattoo, a clever wink at the
aforementioned Edward Runci, and an
update on his statement to fit the
21
st
cuntury. This is definitely the way this
pinup lover wants to see neo pinups go.
Pinup sisters unite!
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Tags: Feminist Pinups, women’s sexuality, jiggle entertainment,
Neo pinups, pinup lover, Edward Runci, They’re Easy to Handle,
Maria Elena Buszek, Charlie’s Angels, Sultry Self Reliance,
active pinups, girlie art, women that paint women,
Joyce Ballantyne, 1940, Pearl Frush, Classic Feminists, extra large tits, Gibson Girl, Lara Croft, J. Howard Miller, Say Cheese(cake), Vintage Feminist Pinup,
Americana, Mudflap Girl, 1970's, 21st century, Femenisting, feminist icon, economic equality, Sexy feminist, powerful women, Rosie the Riveter, Sexuality and
Empowerment
