Betty Grable Objectified
The images before you represent the objectification of women in subtle and obvious ways. The first image is a photograph of Betty Grable taken in 1943. It was arguably the most popular pin-up for G.I.s during World War II. In one perspective, Betty Grable supported the war effort by using her body to serve as a positive distraction from the horrors on the battlefield. A second perspective requires understanding of cultural norms for America in the 1940s. Though bathing suits were of the style she wore in the photograph, most women did not wear pants but skirts no higher than their knees. Men were seen as the bread-winners, while women were seen as mothers and home-caretakers. Posing in a bathing suit for millions of men to lust after was considered risqué. It may have helped the war effort, but her sexy yet sweet look still allowed men to objectify her, similar to today’s objectification of women in schoolgirl clothes.
To call out the intention for the photograph, I decided to create a cartoon of her image surrounded by peaches. I chose a cartoon so viewers could more readily determine that Betty Grable’s body is an object of the image. The peach emoji, another object, is symbolic of a derriere. Though the image is famous for her exposed long legs, her buttocks’ curves are evident for men to ogle. Considering both images, one clearly infuses thoughts of pleasure, while the other generates thoughts geared toward commentary.
I derived my idea for this project from the BBC documentary series, Ways of Seeing. The second episode touched on women's objectification in paintings, which called to mind the famous World War II pin-ups. To find the image of Betty Grable, I googled famous 1940s pin-up models. There were several to choose from , but I chose her image due to being depicted from behind and the desire to use the peach emoji. The photograph is by 20th Century Fox studio photographer Frank Powolny. It is a scan/jpeg of the original photograph, as found on Wikipedia and listed as being in the public domain (I did crop the image to remove most of the writing in the lower right). Please visit the following link for further information- Betty Grable Photograph.
The peach image was selected from the Clipart Library, is a png, and is available for free under a personal use license at Clipart Library I muted the colors of the peach by reducing transparency to 60 percent. I was concerned the vivid color of the original peach would distract from the cartoon of Betty Grable.
The main struggle I had with this project was using the GIMP software. I had to watch several videos to familiarize myself with a few of the tools, and look up troubleshooting tips when the tools stopped working. It got to the point where I could no longer use the program on my generated image. Overall, the main parts of the original photograph are depicted. Of secondary concern are the thoughts generated by my image. Will people of a certain age or culture understand what the peaches represent? Will people of a certain age or culture recognize the photograph and understand its importance? If the photograph and the cartoon weren't side by side, would the cartoon be recognizable for what it is- a commentary on the Betty Grable photograph?
