intended for removal and display) became increas-
ingly explicitly sexual since the 1960s, they generally
remained within the pinup aesthetic. The pinup is
usually characterized by its light-hearted, zesty,
fresh, sometimes romantic approach, so a heavy,
dark, gritty approach to sexuality, even if not speci-
fically pornographic, seldom fits the pinup profile.
For a working definition, it is also important to
consider medium as well as subject and style. What
most people call a pinup is an ink reproduction cre-
ated for a mass market, although lithographic posters
often may be considered ‘‘original’’ works (‘‘multi-
ples’’) rather than reproductions. A pinup photograph
is usually a photomechanical reproduction of a photo-
graph, not the original print. Photographic pinups
have been reproduced as posters, calendars, postcards,
and reproductions in magazines, suitable for removal
and display, especially multi-page centerfolds. Cer-
tainly any printed image from a book or magazine
can be removed and pinned up for display, even if the
subject is a building or a machine, but to call any
image other than a reproduction of a ‘‘glamour,’’
‘‘cheesecake,’’ or ‘‘beefcake’’ picture a ‘‘pinup’’ is to
invite confusion, so thoroughly ingrained in popular
culture is the notion of a pinup as a depiction of the
human form with sexual overtones.
The ‘‘pinup’’ connotes a wide but defined range of
styles within a complex history. Glamour, cheese-
cake, beefcake, and erotica constitute the primary
modes of the pinup. Erotica is defined as an explicit
appeal to sexuality, either by the representation of
genitalia and/or specifically sexual poses, gestures, or
themes. Again, distinctions should be made between
figure photographyper seand photographs that seek
to amuse or titillate in an overtly sexual manner.
Although it has been argued that all representations
of the nude human figure inherently include an ele-
ment of sexuality, most photographs that depict the
figure as studies in form or that include the figure as
an element in a broader or more complex composi-
tion are not normally classified as pinups. The pinup
may be sexual or erotic, situated within a wide spec-
trum ranging from the mild to the highly charged,
but it seeks to amuse and titillate rather than arouse.
‘‘Glamour’’ photographs rely upon careful pos-
ing, makeup, costume, stagecraft, and dramatic
lighting to render the face and/or figure attractive
and alluring; they may not employ a specific sexual
element, but will appeal sexually to the viewer by
their beauty and the implied attainability in the code
of the direct gaze. Glamour portraits of celebrities,
female and male, fit this category. ‘‘Cheesecake’’ and
‘‘beefcake’’ photographs, which may also be ‘‘gla-
mour’’ photographs, specifically include the figure
or a portion thereof. Traditional cheesecake empha-
sizes the female legs and/or bust. The cheesecake
pinup typically has been a clothed model promi-
nently displaying bare legs, whereas beefcake implies
a bare-torso male. One of the most famous cheese-
cake pinup photographs depicted actress Betty
Grable in a swimsuit from the back (1942), empha-
sizing her legs in a simple pose; it fitted the pinup
tradition because of her smiling, over-the-shoulder
gaze at the viewer. Part of the appeal of the photo-
graph was that the subject was a recognizable, pop-
ular film celebrity. Wildly popular, this pinup was
sold to American G.I.s at the rate of 20,000 per
week, and serves as a cultural icon, not only of the
pinup tradition, but of World War II.
If the Grable photograph is one of the main icons
of pinup photography, the other two most famous
images both depict another movie actress, Marilyn
Monroe. The first is the nude calendar photograph,
created by Tom Kelley in 1951 before she became
famous, and which gained even greater notoriety
and rediscovery after it had helped her attain celeb-
rity status. The second is the ‘‘still’’ from the film
The Seven Year Itch(1955), dramatically exposing
the fully clothed Monroe’s legs with her skirt blown
high by a strategic blast of air. Perhaps the most
characteristic form of pinup that consistently war-
rants actual wall display is the calendar. ‘‘Girlie’’
calendars in a wide range of style and quality were
available throughout the twentieth century, culmi-
nating in the sophisticated and often innovative
Pirelli (a tire manufacturer) calendar, with pictures
provided by famous photographers.
In the late twentieth century, two of the most
widely circulated platforms for pinup photography
were the annualSports Illustratedmagazine swim-
suit issue and catalogs for women’s lingerie and
swimwear, such as Victoria’s Secret. TheSports
Illustratedannual swimsuit issue is clearly directed
toward male customers in a blatant attempt to boost
sales through its tenuous identification of cheese-
cake with sport. The light-hearted approach of the
entire project is in the quintessential pinup tradition.
The function of lingerie fashion catalogs is more
complex, although the salient goal is to sell the
company’s products. The catalogs are directed
toward female customers, unlike the male target
audience that most female pinup pictures cultivate,
yet many men eagerly peruse the catalogs after their
wives or girlfriends discard them. It would be inter-
esting to know how many Victoria’s Secret tear
sheets actually find their way to male bulletin
boards and workshop walls. The appeal of such
catalogs for women presumably is that they can
identify with the models and imagine themselves
wearing the alluring products in order to enticePIN-UP PHOTOGRAPHY