Pin-up: That which is affixed to a board or wall for scrutiny or
perusal; specifically, a clipping or photograph, usually of an
attractive young woman
With the industrial revolution and its explosion of massreproductive
print technology and the rise of a formidable
middle class in America and Europe to purchase them, the pinup
genre emerged to both negotiate a space for itself between
the fine and popular arts and define itself through the
representation of a pointedly contemporary female sexuality.
The pin-up is a genre associated with mass production,
distribution, and consumption, meant for (at least limited)
visibility to more than one viewer. As an image where
explicitly contemporary femininity and implicit sexuality are
both synthesized and intended for wide circulation and public
display, the pin up itself is an interesting paradox. It represents
a space in which a self -possessed female sexuality is not only
imaged but also deemed as appropriate for exhibition.
The pin-up in feminist context is constructed as an icon of the
paradoxical that also stand for the pleasurable.
By subverting stereotypical images of woman I aim to remake
the pin-up much as Cyndi Sherman, Madonna and other artists
in the 1970s and 1980s. My intention is to appropriate the pinup
as has been done by woman since its inception more than a
century ago for their own empowerment.

Grrrls and pin-ups by Thelma van Rensburg

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