Everything Seems Awfully High Around Here! 1946

Gil Elvgren made this oil painting, "Everything Seems Awfully High Around Here!", in the United States, likely in the 1940s or 50s. This image is typical of the artist's style, and the pin-up genre. The pretty young waitress appears to be caught unawares, as though her skirt has been lifted unexpectedly. The picture is interesting from a social perspective, if we ask questions about the image's cultural context. For example, the relative sexual freedom that the pin-up celebrates can be contrasted with the realities of the workplace in the post-war period. We might consider the male gaze at work in the image, too, and the sexual division of labor in diners of the time. What does it mean for the woman to be at once a sexualized object, and a member of the service industry? How do the institutions of advertising and distribution affect the production of pin-up art? These kinds of questions can be answered by reference to publications on gender and labor history in the US.