Producing and Consuming the Image of the Female Artist

Abstract

In 1944, Paramount Pictures featured a “Pin-Up Girl” as part of its Unusual Occupations film series.1 The short film begins not in an artist’s studio—at the site of artistic production—but rather at a site of the images’ consumption: in the drab interior of an army barracks. Accompanied by the spirited drums and horns of “I’m in the Army Now,” a young man reclines on the lower level of a bunk bed, reading a newspaper whose contents cause him to frown and furrow his brow.2 Setting aside the newspaper and laying it across his darkolive woolen blanket, an uplifting thought seems to occur to him. He props himself up on his elbow and turns to look over his shoulder, good-naturedly shaking his head with a smile. The camera pans to follow the object of his gaze: a wooden board whose surface is covered with three rows of colorful cards, tacked up at jaunty angles. Each card features a lithe, scantily clad woman against a bright background. Despite differences in settings and costumes, each illustration emphasizes the model’s long legs, enhanced by high heels, as the women pose in a variety of environments and predicaments. “The pinup girl is at the [battle] front, too!” the narrator informs us. The camera proceeds to zoom in to inspect the small pictures, panning across the cards and the protruding nails that hold them in place, however temporarily. “Who is the artist, and who is the model?” the narrator asks, interrupting himself to note, “The boys don’t care, but we do!”