Being recognized not only within the theater itself but also outside challenged the conventions of women's place and women's potential in the public sphere. These adverts and business cards could often be found backstage in almost every theater's green room, pinned-up or stuck into 'frames of the looking-glasses, in the joints of the gas-burners, and sometimes lying on-top of the sacred cast-case itself.' Understanding the power of photographic advertisements to promote their shows, burlesque women self-constructed their identity to make themselves visible.

Examples include James Dean and Jim Morrison.īeginning in the early nineteenth century, pin-up modeling had 'theatrical origins', burlesque performers and actresses sometimes used photographic advertisement as business cards to advertise shows. Male pin-ups were less common than their female counterparts throughout the 20th century, although a market for homoerotica has always existed as well as pictures of popular male celebrities targeted at women or girls. Posters of pin-ups were mass-produced, and became popular from the mid 20th century. Such pictures often appear on walls, desks, or calendars. Pin-up images could be cut out of magazines or newspapers, or on a postcard or lithograph. The term was first attested to in English in 1941 however, the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s. The term pin-up may refer to drawings, paintings, and other illustrations as well as photographs (see the list of pin-up artists). Cheesecake was an American slang word, that was considered a publicly acceptable term for seminude women because pin-up was considered taboo in the early twentieth century. These pictures are also sometimes known as cheesecake photos. Pin-up models may be glamour models, fashion models, or actors. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, i.e. A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture.

Pin up 2