The Meaning of "Pin Up Girl"

[happyfilmluvguy]

Today as I was showing one of the employees of my father's work the first issue of Classic Style Magazine (thanks MK!), I started telling them about pin up models and girls. I showed him photos of the Stop Starring advertisement but then he asked me why they're called "pin up girl(s)". I honestly did not know the answer, but my solem guess was that during the war, the armed forces "pinned" photos of these girls "up" in their bunks while they were away from the home front. This is what I told him. Now, is this correct or am I off by a landslide?

 

[rubyredlocks]

I know I've heard that explanation before and can't seem to remember any other.It sounds logical! I've also heard the term "Calendar Girl".

 

[Harp]

Pin-ups

Today as I was showing one of the employees of my father's work the first issue of Classic Style Magazine (thanks MK!), I started telling them about pin up models and girls. I showed him photos of the Stop Starring advertisement but then he asked me why they're called "pin up girl(s)". I honestly did not know the answer, but my solem guess was that during the war, the armed forces "pinned" photos of these girls "up" in their bunks while they were away from the home front. This is what I told him. Now, is this correct or am I off by a landslide?

Read you lima charlie, over. (loud and clear)

 

[Lauren]

I think I heard that the reason why is because you'd take the picture and tack it to the wall- closet, workroom, whatever

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I guess the only resource so far is everyone who has responded so, and this website. I guess that's the reason after all!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin-up_girl

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Read you lima charlie, over. (loud and clear)

"did you catch the 6 o' clock news last night Harp A customer?, over..."

 

[BegintheBeguine]

One example

Please refer to the movie Stalag 17. Betty Grable's picture is pinned or tacked up and revered. He also wanted to grow eggs from eggshells, but that was just him being cute.

 

[Harp]

"did you catch the 6 o' clock news last night Harp A customer?, over..."

Negative.

 

[Mindraker]

Is it just from the movies, or would the sailors actually give the pin-up girls a good "pat" (or whack) on the buttocks as they rushed out to their stations?

 

[Masamunect]

Perhaps you would find these interesting. I found these in an old copy of a time's magazine. I sensored these to my descretion of course.


The first


The second

There are more but the scanner is on the fritz.

 

[Jessica Reinard]

So where does the term "cheesecake pin-up" come from?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

So where does the term "cheesecake pin-up" come from?

I'd wondered that myself for years and could never find the etymology for it. Here it is from urbandictionary and it actually makes sense: A genre of glamour photography and poster art made popular in wartime pin-ups of the 1940's, often featuring modest poses by movie starlets displaying lots of leg but little explicit nudity. So called because of the resemblance of a stocking-clad female thigh to the layers of a cheesecake dessert. As in "Show me some cheesecake, baby."

 

[Dixon Cannon]

This is an interesting subject...

The term 'Pin-Up' is an obvious reference to pinning up the picture on a wall. The pictures were usually torn from movie magazine of the era, many that provided full page pictures specifically to be torn and use as a 'Pin-Up'.

This eventually gave way to the 'Centerfold', a double-truck middle page layout created for the same reason; to remove and 'pin-up'. Playboy magazine eventually introduced the 'Gatefold' which was three page sections that folded out and was detachable for 'pin-up' display.

I have to admit, until I was about eighteen or so, I thought all girls had staple holes in their bellys. What a surprise I had!

Sometime in the '80's, most major magazines had given up on saddle-stich binding and went with adhesive perfect binding, thus eliminating the belly staple for a new generation of voyeurs. At about the same time, women began putting staples in their belly-buttons. Go figure!

As you can see, I've done a lot of studying on this subject - I'm kind of a 'Pin-up' Phd!

-dixon cannon

 

[jake_fink]

The term 'Pin-Up' is an obvious reference to pinning up the picture on a wall. The pictures were usually torn from movie magazine of the era, many that provided full page pictures specifically to be torn and use as a 'Pin-Up'.

This eventually gave way to the 'Centerfold', a double-truck middle page layout created for the same reason; to remove and 'pin-up'. Playboy magazine eventually introduced the 'Gatefold' which was three page sections that folded out and was detachable for 'pin-up' display.

I have to admit, until I was about eighteen or so, I thought all girls had staple holes in their bellys. What a surprise I had!

Sometime in the '80's, most major magazines had given up on saddle-stich binding and went with adhesive perfect binding, thus eliminating the belly staple for a new generation of voyeurs. At about the same time, women began putting staples in their belly-buttons. Go figure!

As you can see, I've done a lot of studying on this subject - I'm kind of a 'Pin-up' Phd!

-dixon cannon

lol lol

Cheesecake, I believe, comes initially from the colour of the body parts on display, legs, thighs, bellies. These were parts that were not frequently exposed to sunlight, and the models/dancers were predominantly caucasian, therefore the skin colour was as white as cream cheese. The models and the mores changed but the name stuck, and even helped name male models - beefcake is a play on cheesecake.

Now my problem with the term cheesecake is that when I order cheesecake at a restaurant - which is none too often - I order it with caramel or cherry topping...

 

[Warlock]

I think it is because almost everyone appreciates really good cheese cake.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

"A definition of [the term] would be helpful here. A "pin-up" image is one that shows a full-length view of its subject and characteristically has an element of a theme or some kind of story. The woman in a pin-up is usually dressed in a form-revealing outfit, either one that can be worn in public, such as a bathing suit, sunsuit, or skimpy dress, or one that is more provocative and intimate, such as lingerie. Sometimes, a pin-up may be shown as a nude, but that is more the exception than the rule." - Charles G. Martignette, The Great American Pin Up Taschen Publishing, 1996

I read through the introductions to The Great American Pin Up and couldn't find a origin to the term, "Pin-up," but it seems to be limited to painted or drawn images, and disregards photography.


Lee
______________________

"An artist creates an image to inspire the mind. A writer insprires the mind to create an image."

 

[Jessica Reinard]

Interesting theories.

I also found this on Wikapedia:

The term “cheesecake” is synonymous with “pin-up photo”. The earliest documented print usage of this sense of “cheesecake” is in 1934, predating “pin-up”, although anecdotes say the phrase was in spoken slang some 20 years earlier, originally in the phrase (said of a pretty woman) “better than cheesecake”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin-up_girl

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Interesting theories.

I also found this on Wikapedia:

The term “cheesecake” is synonymous with “pin-up photo”. The earliest documented print usage of this sense of “cheesecake” is in 1934, predating “pin-up”

Which would also predate color photography - for the masses, at least. Some commercial photographers might have had it, but it was pretty much in the devolopmental stages at the time (the first color movie coming out five years later).

This may affect "cheesecake" coming from the color of the model's skin in photographs, but not in paintings.


Lee

 

[pigeon toe]

All this talk about cheesecake is making me hungry!

 

[Emmababy]

i thought this was kinda obvious...