The Bookworm Presents: Our Girls: Aussie Pinups of the 40s and 50s

While browsing in the shop at the Australian War Memorial I came across Our Girls: Aussie Pinups of the 40's and 50's. I'd seen a lot of posts about the book around its launch in Melbourne back in 2009 and watched the fabulous documentary Paper Dolls: Pinup Girls of WWII so I grabbed a copy for myself.

Our Girls is written by Madeleine Hamilton who spent four years tracking down swimsuit and glamour models from the 40s and 50s to share their stories. This delightful little book has gorgeous pictures of the girls with snippets of their experiences pinup modeling and gives an overview of how public opinions towards pinups changed. Pinups went from being praised for their moral boasting work during the war years to being seen as something seedy at the end of the 50's and then disappeared into obscurity with the rise of the feminist movement who saw pinups as oppressive and demeaning to women.

This book gives a fascinating insight to the rise and fall of the aussie pinup with fabulous first hand accounts from the girls themselves. I would recommend it to any fan of the pinup!

Our Girls: Aussie Pinups of the 40's and 50's is available through Arcade Publications