The art of the pinup girl model has never solely been about sex. Though that is a part of the total charm and the marketing behind it, some of the most classic pinup models really considered themselves artists above and beyond any kind of immediate sex symbol.
The history of pinup models is very peculiar, and riddled with lots of ups and downs that ended up distorting what the art was all about in the first place. Pinup modeling is about sensuality. It is about expressing the beauty of the female body in a way that is empowering and not demeaning. It is a celebration of elegance and sexiness without ever being overtly exploitative. There is an element of that which makes pinup girl history rebellious and dangerous, but it was never at the core of what it is all about.
The Vintage Classics
From the 20's to the 40's, pinup modeling really drove on two things. The first was a sense of lewd curiosity. Simply showing some bare leg skin was sensational, and the curiosity of it drove through to people who were enamored by, of course, beautiful women and a bit of skin. There is some credibility to people that say that bare legs was the equivalent of the entire naked body today, but what drove pinup modeling in the 20's and 30's wasn't exactly sex. There was something more there, and the models were playful and sensual in their field.
Many of these photos now are considered vintage classics. There is something charming about the innocence of it all that is actually sexy in its own way. The graphic spirit of our culture now has taken a lot of that away. But the sexiness of Mae West and Mary Pickford comes through in their naivety and innocence from that time. This defined pinup girl history into the War era, where it got a bit darker and more noir influenced.
The Middle Era of the 50's and 60's
The 50's and 60's marks a distinct transition of pinup modeling. It became an art form unto itself. See, the original inception of pinup modeling may be a bit wholesome, but these lines ultimately blurred as more and more models were gaining wide acceptance. Bettie Page is arguably the most famous of this era. She openly embraced the sexiness part of it, but it was also an art form to her. The culture was smarter. She knew, and many people knew, that this was seen as a pure sexual marketing thing, and that was acceptable to an extent. The style of this era was much darker, it removed the clothing to show more skin and darkened the imagery as a whole.
The Door Wide Open
The 70's and on delivered a generally new revolution- wide video distribution. This blew the doors wide open and essentially brought pornography into the mainstream. Pinup girl history was put aside in favor of graphic nudity and video content. But in the last decade there has been a resurgence of classic pinup modeling. Men and women both are attracted to some wholesomeness mixed with sexiness, and that has made the genre live to this day.
