The Varga Girl and WWII in the pin-up’s feminist history – Notes
Maria Elena Buszek, Santa Monica College
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.
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.
Joanna Frueh, Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love
(to be published December, 2000).
Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating (New York: Dutton Press,
1974).
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?"
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).
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.
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.
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.
The 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.
See "Interview: Linda [sic] Benglis," Ocular
4, no. 2 (Summer 1979): 34.
Alloway et al., "Letter to the Editor," Artforum
13, no. 4 (December 1974): 9.
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.
Cited in Joanna Frueh, Hannah Wilke, p. 63.
Ann Rower, "Fresh Dirt," http://www.echonyc.com/~meehan/Soil/Crust/rower.html.
30 June, 2000.
The resulting publication was the book, Pleasure and
Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carole S. Vance (New York:
Routledge, 1984.)
Vance, "Introduction," from Pleasure and Danger,
p.24.
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.
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.
FACT Book Committee (eds.), Caught Looking: Feminism,
Pornography, and Censorship. (East Haven: LongRiver Books, 1986).
See Liz McQuiston, Suffragettes to She-Devils: Women’s
Liberation and Beyond (London: Phaidon Press, 1997): 162, 168.
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.
Shonagh Adelman, "Artist’s statement: Corpus delecti
= body of evidence," (New York: Linda Kirkland Gallery, 1999).
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.
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).
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).
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).
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).
Kenon Breazeale, "In Spite of Women: Esquire Magazine
and the Construction of the Male Consumer," Signs 20 (no.1, Autumn 1994):
1.
See Mark Gabor, pp. 76-7.
Cited in Merrill, p. 2.
Alberto Vargas and Reid Austin, Vargas (New York:
Harmony Books, 1978): 11.
See Linda Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl: Image & Icon
in Culture & Cinema (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), and Charles
Higham, Ziegfeld (Chicago: Regnery Press, 1972).
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.
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 Butte
Though 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!
Stack, Esquire (January 1941): centerfold.
See Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, The
Great American Pin-Up (Cologne: Taschen, 1996): 34.
"Talk of the Town," The New Yorker, (11
January, 1941), cited in Merrill, 90.
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).
See Austin and Vargas, pp. ???
"The Sound and The Fury," Esquire (December
1940): 12.
"The Sound and the Fury," Esquire (February
1941): 10.
Arnold Gingrich, "Legends of Esky’s Travels,"
Esquire 21, no. 6 (June 1944): 29.
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.
Letter from Ensign Connell R. Miller, "The Sound and
the Fury," Esquire 21, no. 4 (April 1994): 33.
Stack, "Lullaby for a dream," Esquire
(February 1941): centerfold.
Stack, "Beauts and Saddles," Esquire (November
1942): centerfold.
Stack, Esquire Calendar, February 1944.
Gingrich, "Legends of Esky’s Travels," p.29.
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families
in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988): 69-70.
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.
Cited in Sherna Berger Gluck, Rosie the Riveter Revisited:
Women, the War, and Social Change (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987): 10.
Statistics cited in Peter Filene, Him/Her/Self: Sex
Roles in Modern America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986):
163
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.
Filene, p.163.
Rupp, p. 143.
Wise and Wise, p.103.
Filene, Him/Her/Self, p. 163
Wise and Wise, p.99.
Wise and Wise, p.92-3.
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.
Weatherford, pp. 146-8.
See D’Emilio and Freedman, pp.248-9.
What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?, http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/Coed.html.
9 June 2000.
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.
Winston Ehrmann, Premarital Dating Behavior (New
York: Henry Holt, 1959), cited in D’Emilio and Freedman, pp. 260- 261.
D’Emilio and Freedman, p. 260-261.
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).
What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?, http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/YoungGirl.html.
9 June 2000.
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.
See Walton Rawls, Wake Up, America! World War I and
The American Poster (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988): 149-169.
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.
See "Don’t look now...but there's a woman reading over
your shoulder," Esquire (October 1940): 171.
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.
‘The Sound and the Fury," Esquire 24, no. 1
(July 1945): 26.
See Merrill, 89-90; and the Letters of Alberto Vargas,
the National Archives of American Art.
"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.
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.
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.
Westbrook, p.605.
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.
All the photos are inscribed on verso, "Echo Lake
5/30/47."
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.
Phil Stack, first verse, "Miss America," Esquire
gatefold (September 1942).
Cornelia Lively, "Famous Varga Girl Creator and Wife
Visiting in City," The Birmingham News (Wednesday, 10 October 1945):
unnumbered page.
Letter from Murray Benson, Capt. M.C., "The Sound
and the Fury," Esquire 22, no. 4 (October 1944): 34.
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.
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).
Pamela Robertson, Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp From
Mae West to Madonna (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996): 89.
