Bella Florentine
Recently I have become obsessed by resurgence of the Pin Up as a sexual icon. Being a spawn of the eighties and a total pop culture nerd, I pick and choose which trends and ideas I follow with great enthusiasm. While working at a local bar, my friend Heidi opened up our small work laptop and showed me the PUG (Pin up girl Clothing) website. Heidi being a “Dita Von Tesse” loving, tattooed hottie, I tend to listen when she thinks something is cool. From the first moment I couldn’t believe my eyes, pages of gorgeous “Marilyn” and “Bettie” look alikes stared back at me. I instantly felt a feeling of longing and almost painful joy. I had to buy something, thinking that with one purchase I could blossom into one of these coveted treasures; a Pin up! My first purchase was the black “Marilyn” bathing suit, from my first time seeing my reflection in the mirror I realized this is what I wanted to be. My whole life I have suffered from what the media has shoved down my throat, I always thought that being beautiful and desirable meant you had to look like Kate Moss…people like Marilyn Monroe just didn’t exist in this new world order of rail thin, “heroin chic”. To be fashionable was to be thin. Something I have never been. Now I found myself being ogled by men and other women alike. If one bathing suit could do this, to give me this type of empowered feeling what could a dress do?
In a world of Internet porn and sexed up disney tweens, one would think that this pin up art of seduction would be archaic? But it seems to be much to the contrary. So, never being one to shy away from potential humiliation and social experimentation, I took some amateur pin up shots of me in my new PUG pieces and made one of them my Facebook profile pic, as well as posting some on the PUG fan page. I have never received such an overwhelming response, I started hearing from friends that I didn’t know I had even accepted friend requests from! I received friend requests, got several comments and thumbs up from men and women alike! I was a “Pin up” in my own little social networking world. At 29 years of age and mom to a 3 year I am no spring chicken, yet I am finally figuring out who the hell I am, I finally feel beautiful! Not because I have starved my way into a size 0 but because I have looked to the beauty standards of the past and found where I fit. Whether or not I get anywhere with it, I want to live everyday like a pin up, taking pictures, posting on sites and talking to others with my same interest, and loving the figure that God, Buddah, or science (whatever you are into) has given me. Pin up isn’t just a poster or picture on a site…it is feminine empowerment, I have been a student of feminist theories and never found anything quite as empowering as emulating these beauties from the past and present. So from now on call me “Bella Florentine” and watch out world here I come! This may be even better then Stella getting her groove back!
