Nancy Matos

Reader Question: "Dorothy Lamour is the No.1 pin-up girl of the US Army."

Could you explain "pin-up" girl?

My comments: A "pin-up" girl is a female model featured on a poster, quite popular with marines during World War II. They were usually voluptuous, curvy women and could be models or actresses. A pin-up girl can also be depicted in a drawing or painting, and not necessarily in a photograph.

When men were away at war, it was typical for them to "pin-up" a picture of a beautiful woman beside their beds or in their lockers. With few women in a war zone and away from their girlfriends and wives for long periods of time, it was understandable that the male soldier would crave a reminder of the female form. American actress Dorothy Lamour was one of the most popular pin-up girls of that time. But she had some stiff competition in the form of American actress, singer and dancer Betty Grable, who is considered the number one pin-up girl of WWII (she even starred in a 1944 film called “Pin Up Girl). Her photos graced many soldier's walls, but the most popular image of her is one which has now become synonymous with pin-up girls. In the famous photo, her back is to the camera and she is wearing a one-piece bathing suit and high heels showing off her famous legs, or “gams” (they were even insured for $1,000,000), her hands on her hips, flashing a smile while looking over her shoulder. The photograph is so famous that it was included in "Life" magazine's "100 Photographs That Changed The World" and is considered an iconic image of the 20th century. You can find it online at the following website: http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm13.html

Not all pin-up girls are associated with WWII, however. Several actresses and models in the last few decades were considered pin-up girls of their time, including Farrah Fawcett, whose swimsuit poster featuring her feathered blonde hair and dazzling white teeth was said to have been featured on most teenage boys’walls in the 1970s. The poster was released in 1976 and is one of the most famous pin-ups ever, selling 12 million copies. Modern-day pin-up girls include Pamela Anderson and Cindy Crawford, and most recently Dita von Teese.

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Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.