Of Varga Girls and Riot Grrrls:
The Varga Girl and WWII in the pin-up’s feminist history – Notes
An early version of this essay was published in n.paradoxa: the international feminist art journalafter its presentation at the 1998 ArtsNow Conference, Subject to Desire: Refiguring the Body, at SUNY-New Paltz. I would like to thank the journal’s editor, Katy Deepwell, for her interest in and enthusiasm for my research on the pin-up and feminist sexual expression. I would also like to thank Jack Banning, David Cateforis, Nicole Demerin, Tracy Floreani, Joanna Frueh, Steve Goddard, Angel Kwolek-Folland, Karal Ann Marling, Mark Olsen, John Pultz, and Marilyn Stokstad for contributing valuable resources and critical insight to my continuing research on Vargas and WWII.
1 Linda Nochlin, "Offbeat and Naked," Artnet (5 November 1999). Online. Available: www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/nochlin/nochlin 11/5/99.asp. 4 April 2000.
2 Joanna Frueh, Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love (to be published December, 2000).
3 Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating (New York: Dutton Press, 1974).
4 Ironically, the image’s punch-line--"Q: Why haven’t women made great works of art? A: Because they are great works of art"--is a reference to Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"
5 I borrow the use of the term "binary" in reference to gendered notions of sexuality from Judith Butler’s groundbreaking book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990).
6 Unfortunately, the media turned the hair curlers and Vogue issues tossed into the "Freedom Trashcan" into the anti-feminist slur, "bra-burner," even though no such garments were burned.
7 See Faith Wilding, "The Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts, 1970-75," in Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994): 38.
8 Cheryl Zurilgen, "Becoming Conscious," Everywoman 2, no. 7, issue 18 (7 May, 1971): 8; cited in Wilding, "The Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts," p.35.
9The letter, signed by Lawrence Alloway, Max Kozloff, Rosalind Krauss, Joseph Mascheck, and Annette Michelson was published in Artforum 13, no. 4 (December 1974): 9. As the complexities of the fiasco surrounding Benglis’ ad are too great for me to properly discuss in the context of this article, I would like to note that Amelia Jones addresses the debacle at length in "Postfeminism, Feminist Pleasures, and Embodied Theories of Art," in Joanna Frueh, Cassandra Langer, and Arlene Raven (eds.), New Feminist Art Criticism: Art, Identity, Action (New York: Harper Collins, 1994): 33-36.
10 See "Interview: Linda [sic] Benglis," Ocular 4, no. 2 (Summer 1979): 34.
11 Alloway et al., "Letter to the Editor," Artforum 13, no. 4 (December 1974): 9.
12 See Joanna Frueh’s analysis of this issue in Thomas H. Kochheiser (ed.), Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective (Columbia, MO: University of Columbia Press, 1989): 41-49.
13 Cited in Joanna Frueh, Hannah Wilke, p. 63.
14 Ann Rower, "Fresh Dirt," http://www.echonyc.com/~meehan/Soil/Crust/rower.html. 30 June, 2000.
15 The resulting publication was the book, Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carole S. Vance (New York: Routledge, 1984.)
16 Vance, "Introduction," from Pleasure and Danger, p.24.
17 See Carnival Knowledge papers (1981-85), Franklin Furnace Archive, New York, NY. Thanks to Franklin Furnace founder and director, Martha Wilson, for her generosity with both the Archive’s resources and her own time recounting her experiences as the gallery’s director during the Carnival Knowledge happenings.
18 See Jill Nagle, "The First Ladies of Feminist Porn: A Conversation with Candida Royalle and Debi Sundahl," in Nagle (ed.), Whores and Other Feminists (New York: Routledge, 1997): 156-166; and "Interview with Susie Bright" in Andrea Juno and V. Vale (eds.), Angry Women (San Francisco: Re/Search Publications, 1991): 194-221.
19 FACT Book Committee (eds.), Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship. (East Haven: LongRiver Books, 1986).
20 See Liz McQuiston, Suffragettes to She-Devils: Women’s Liberation and Beyond (London: Phaidon Press, 1997): 162, 168.
21 See Sean Gibbons, "Rajé Rules: Renée Cox and the Revisionist Ideal," in Rajé, The Superhero: The Beginning of a Bold New Era (New York: Cristinerose Gallery, 1998): no page numbers.
22 Shonagh Adelman, "Artist’s statement: Corpus delecti = body of evidence," (New York: Linda Kirkland Gallery, 1999).
23 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "The Other Side of Venus" in Victoria de Grazia, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996): 131.
24 See Kendrick’s analysis of the creation of the legal term "pornographic" in the 19th century, in The Secret Museum, pp.67-124; and Lynn Hunt (ed.), The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity (New York: Zone Books, 1993).
25 See Buszek, Representing ‘Awarishness’ for a fuller discussion of the period’s pin-ups and their affinities with women’s culture and feminism. See also Robert C. Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991); Faye E. Dudden, Women in American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences, 1790-1870 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press); Tracy C. Davis, Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture, (London and New York: Routledge, 1991); B.E.C. Howarth-Loomes, Victorian Photography: A Collector's Guide, (London: Ward Lock, 1974); Elizabeth Anne McCauley, A.A.E. Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press); and Audrey Linkman, The Victorians: Photographic Portraits (London and New York: Tauris Parke, 1993).
26 For more thorough analyses of the construction and idealization of "True Womanhood" in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood," American Quarterly 18, no.2 (Autumn 1975): 151-174; and Lois Banner, American Beauty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983).
27 For fuller discussions of the "new woman" and her associations with sexuality, feminism, and the Gibson Girl, see Ellen Wiley Todd, The New Woman Revised: Painting and Politics on Fourteenth Street (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Carol DuBois and Linda Gordon, "Seeking Ecstasy on the Battlefield: Danger and Pleasure in Nineteenth-Century Feminist Sexual Thought," in Carole S. Vance (ed.), Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (London: Pandora Press, 1989); Leila J. Rupp, "Feminism and the Sexual Revolution in the Early Twentieth Century," Feminist Studies (Summer, 1989); and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The New Woman As Androgyne: Social Disorder and Gender Crisis, 1870-1936," in Smith-Rosenberg (ed.), Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America; Lisa Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign (London: Chatto and Windus, Ltd., 1987); and Martha Banta, Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987).
28 Kenon Breazeale, "In Spite of Women: Esquire Magazine and the Construction of the Male Consumer," Signs 20 (no.1, Autumn 1994): 1.
31 Alberto Vargas and Reid Austin, Vargas (New York: Harmony Books, 1978): 11.
32 See Linda Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl: Image & Icon in Culture & Cinema (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), and Charles Higham, Ziegfeld (Chicago: Regnery Press, 1972).
33 See "The Varga Girl," Newsweek 15, no. 3 (23 September, 1940): 56; and Merrill, p p. 81-6; and Reid Austin, Petty: The Classic Pin-Up Art of George Petty (New York: Gramercy Books, 1997), pp.66-81. Smart’s financial motives on changing Vargas’ name are bolstered by an internal file from the magazine’s 1946-47 court battle with Vargas over ownership of the name "Varga." In an affadavit from 24 April 1946, Smart writes that the magazine "decided to use him and develop him, not under his own name Vargas, but under a name which we could conceive and own ourselves." Esquire Varga archive, The University of Kansas’ Department of Prints and Drawings.
34 The first Varga Girl’s (October 1940) caption by Phil Stack, entitled "Love at Second Sight" reads:
Irene, I just called to let you know
That I am signing off that guy from ButteThough his intentions may be pure as snow
The way that cowboy rhumbas isn’t cute!
He says it’s pretty lonely in New York
And here is one for Ripley to endorse--
The other night when we were at the Stork
He called up home and asked about his horse!
What’s that you say for me to hold on tight?
Speak louder, this connection isn’t clear...
Oh, boy! You’re sure that Winchell has it right?
SIX SILVER MINES! How interesting, my dear!
AS RICH AS THAT? He surely doesn’t show it...
MY GOD! I’ve been in love and didn’t know it!
35 Stack, Esquire (January 1941): centerfold.
36 See Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, The Great American Pin-Up (Cologne: Taschen, 1996): 34.
37 "Talk of the Town," The New Yorker, (11 January, 1941), cited in Merrill, 90.
38 Here, I borrow Carol Ockman’s analysis of Ingres’ female figures, as well as her feminist reading of the visual pleasure to be gained in them. See Ingres' Eroticized Bodies: Retracing the Serpentine Line (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995).
39 See Austin and Vargas, pp. ???
40 "The Sound and The Fury," Esquire (December 1940): 12.
41 "The Sound and the Fury," Esquire (February 1941): 10.
42 Unknown staff writer, Esquire (July 1941): centerfold.
43 Stack, Esquire Calendar, December 1941.
45 Arnold Gingrich, "Legends of Esky’s Travels," Esquire 21, no. 6 (June 1944): 29.
46 Photo published in Esquire 24, no. 2 (August 1945): 19, and full description of image from files at Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection, Lot 972.
47 Letter from Ensign Connell R. Miller, "The Sound and the Fury," Esquire 21, no. 4 (April 1994): 33.
48 Stack, "Lullaby for a dream," Esquire (February 1941): centerfold.
49 Stack, "Beauts and Saddles," Esquire (November 1942): centerfold.
50 Stack, Esquire Calendar, February 1944.
51 Gingrich, "Legends of Esky’s Travels," p.29.
52 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988): 69-70.
53 There is an interesting discourse surrounding the issue of Rosie the Riveter as a pin-up, which I unfortunately haven’t the time to address in this study. See Melissa Dabakis, "Gendered Labor: Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter and the discourses of wartime womanhood," in Barbara Melosh (ed.), Gender and American History Since 1890 (London and New York: Routledge, 1993): 182-204.
54 Cited in Sherna Berger Gluck, Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, the War, and Social Change (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987): 10.
55 Statistics cited in Peter Filene, Him/Her/Self: Sex Roles in Modern America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986): 163
56 See Rupp, pp. 137-166 and Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984): 25-52.
60 Filene, Him/Her/Self, p. 163
63 What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?: An Oral History of Rhode Island Women During WWII. Online. Available: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/WarSparks.html. 18 April 2000.
65 See D’Emilio and Freedman, pp.248-9.
66 What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?, http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/Coed.html. 9 June 2000.
67 Sean Elder, "The Sappiest Generation: My cantankerous father and my own better judgment won't let me get sentimental about WWII veterans," Salon Magazine (31 July, 2000), http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/07/31/generation/index.html 31 July 2000.
68 Winston Ehrmann, Premarital Dating Behavior (New York: Henry Holt, 1959), cited in D’Emilio and Freedman, pp. 260- 261.
69 D’Emilio and Freedman, p. 260-261.
70 See Maxene Andrews, Over Here, Over There : The Andrews Sisters and the USO Stars in World War II (New York :Kensington Publishers, 1993); and Frank Coffey, Always Home: 50 years of the USO--the official photographic history (Washington: Brassey’s Books, 1991).
71 What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?, http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/YoungGirl.html. 9 June 2000.
72 For my phrasing of this phenomenon, I am indebted to Jana Frederick-Collins’, "'He kept pressing me for details!': A critical cultural analysis of domestic narratives in post-WWII pin-up advertising calendars," Paper presented to the Commission on the Status of Women at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1994.
73 See Walton Rawls, Wake Up, America! World War I and The American Poster (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988): 149-169.
74 See Joanne Meyerowitz, "Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Material: Responses to Girlie Pictures in the Mid-Twentieth Century U.S.," Journal of Women's History 8, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 9-35.
75 See "Don’t look now...but there's a woman reading over your shoulder," Esquire (October 1940): 171.
76 Advertisers such as Pepsodent ("Now I’ve got 3 Times the Confidence in my Man-Power"), Keepsake jewelers, and the Arrow shirt company ("Ladies, come on this Christmas Gift Tour") ran ads addressed specifically at women in the "gentlemen’s magazine" during WWII.
77 ‘The Sound and the Fury," Esquire 24, no. 1 (July 1945): 26.
78 See Merrill, 89-90; and the Letters of Alberto Vargas, the National Archives of American Art.
79 "Sub-Deb Clubs: The Midwest is Full of Them," Unnamed/undated magazine clipping, Esquire Varga archive, The University of Kansas’ Department of Prints and Drawings.
80 Ralph Freed, Lew Brown and Roger Edens, "I Love an Esquire Girl," from the film DuBarry Was a Lady, 101 min. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Films, Los Angeles, 1943.
81 Robert B. Westbrook, "I want a girl just like the girl that married Harry James: American women and the problem of political obligation in World War II," American Quarterly 42, no.3 (September 1990): 606.
83 Many thanks to Lynn Rideout for sharing the images from the WASP classbook of her mother, Patricia Houran, as well as stories from her mother’s service days with me.
84 All the photos are inscribed on verso, "Echo Lake 5/30/47."
85 Anonymous, "The Sound and The Fury," Esquire 20, no. 2 (August 1943): 10. A month and a half later, Lieutenant Reddington Hanser wrote the magazine to say: "Though my liking for the Varga wenches- is supreme, I would not replace the chassis on page ten for a Varga dame. It is too bad you could not provide a larger of such photo (sic) so that we, who appreciate shapely forms, could pin up." "The Sound and The Fury," Esquire 20, no. 4 (October 1943): 10.
86 Phil Stack, first verse, "Miss America," Esquire gatefold (September 1942).
87 Cornelia Lively, "Famous Varga Girl Creator and Wife Visiting in City," The Birmingham News (Wednesday, 10 October 1945): unnumbered page.
88 Letter from Murray Benson, Capt. M.C., "The Sound and the Fury," Esquire 22, no. 4 (October 1944): 34.
89 Jerre and Robert were married upon his return from the Mediterranean Theater--where the Paper Doll flew in 37 missions--and remained together for 51 years. Information taken from a letter to the author by Robert Swanson, dated 2 February, 1998. I thank Mr. Swanson for sharing his stories and photographs with me for the purposes of this essay.
90 See May, Homeward Bound ; Rochelle Gatlin, American Women Since 1945 (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1987); and Joanne Meyerowitz (ed.), Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).
91 Pamela Robertson, Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp From Mae West to Madonna (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996): 89.
92 Robertson, Guilty Pleasures, p. 97.
93 Anonymous, text accompanying "Ritual" pin-up, Esquire 27, no. 4 (April 1947): 52.
94 Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (New York: Crown Publishers, 1992): 53.
95 Meyerowitz, "Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Materials," pp.21-3.
96 See Gabor, p.78; and Russell Miller, Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy (New York: Plume, 1984): 27.
99 See Meyerowitz’s discussion of Playboy’s female readership in "Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Materials," pp. 21-26.
100 See Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, (New York: Dell Edition, 1983).
102 Ann Snitow, "Retrenchment vs. Transformation: The Politics of the Anti-Pornography Movement," in Caught Looking, p. 11.
103 These pin-ups first appeared as part of Ann Magnuson’s "I Have a Sex Book, Too!," Paper Magazine (October 1992): 20-22.
104 Ann Magnuson, telephone conversation with author, Spring 1997.
105 Katharine Gates, "Preface from the Publisher," in Annie Sprinkle, Post-Modern Pin-Ups: Bio Booklet (Richmond, VA: Gates of Heck, 1995): 6.
