“Girlie Show” by Megan Abbot covers a wide variety of topics, from the classic 1940’s housewife culture, sexuality, independence, and relationships between women. I particularly wish to focus on the history that is mentioned and teased throughout this story, working as its framework.
The painting which inspired this work was done in 1941, the same year in which America joined World War after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Through the inclusion of America in that war, the many jobs which kept the great beast running needed new workers, and women rose to the occasion. They were introduced to a new sort of independence, the joy and struggle for working, of managing and making their own money. In reference to the might-be inspiration for “Girlie Show”, burlesque was making the rounds, popular with soldiers on leave looking for the kind of red-blooded hedonism that kept them afloat in times of such turmoil.
Pinup was also popular during this time, sensual and erotic drawings of women like the starlets Betty Garble and Ava Gardener, sketched by the hands of artists like Vargas or Gil Elvgren. It was used as a means of pacification and inspiration for men at war, a way of soothing anxieties and reinforcing the concept of male heterosexuality at this time.
This new take of sexuality and power opened opportunities that were not present before, a passivity in men and an increased independence and demand for more from women. In “Girlie Show” you can see facets of this topic being explored between Pauline and Mae. Mae, who would be considered a promiscuous and ‘deviant’ woman by the times standards, and Pauline, a quintessential face of the ‘expected’ woman of the 40’s. Mae introduces Pauline to a concept that Pauline had not explored before, a sexual confidence Pauline felt only briefly in the paintings her husband made of her. The story reads to me as a thrilling example of how opportunity and support can change a life, and for the better.