Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons

by Lynn Peril

Book Overview

Deluged by persuasive advertisements and meticulous (though often misguided) advice experts, women from the 1940s to the 1970s were coaxed to "think pink" when they thought of what it meant to be a woman. Attaining feminine perfection meant conforming to a mythical standard, one that would come wrapped in an adorable pink package, if those cunning marketers were to be believed. With wise humor and a savvy eye for curious, absurd, and at times wildly...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393323544
• ISBN13: 9780393323542
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll scream, you'll LEARN!!

This was great. Terribly entertaining and very informative as well. Lynn Peril obviously has a passion for this stuff, and her research is quite extensive. I thought that the information was presented in a very manageable and clever way. I only wish most of the non-fiction I read in college was this good while still teaching me things. Should be required reading for EVERYONE! I loved her chapter at the end about how, sadly, we are none too far away from this type of thinking, with several examples, such as "The Rules." It just made me very sad and angry at times, while laughing out loud or cringing in horror at others. My roommates and I had a grand time taking the 1947 Ladies Home Journal quiz to find out if we should look for a job or a husband. (One of the instant "job" qualifiers was if you were over 26 years old or "above average height")

The Pink Jello Mold of Femininity

This book is genius! It walks a fine line between rationally exploring the history of social expectations for girls and reporting the horror contained within, without ever giving into the temptation to go on one long, humorless feminist rant. In fact, it approaches the topic with remarkable good humor. Well written, informative AND funny!

Finally!

After enjoying Lynn Perils sarcastic wit in Mystery Date, I was excited to read she had a book in the works. Lo and behold here it is.Peril reviews highlights of advertisements and home ec propaganda from mid-century america, when gender roles were apparently our patriotic god-fearing duty to obey. Along with illustrations and reprints of such epherma, we get her commentary, which isn't as obnoxiously judgemental as it could be- instead she is just amused and continuously dumbfounded at the ploys used to develop brand loyalty from age 3 on, instill a pride in fragile, meek femininity (strapping robust heterosexuality in the males), and exploit adolescent anxiety in order to do so.Open any womens magazine from the era and you will find page after page of ads for deoderant and listerine- all with the same message that failure to use their products might ruin your chances at MARRAIGE, the be all end all, apparently, of female life in the mid 1900s.Lynn Peril collects and organizes the best of these ads and textbooks for you. It is up to you to make any conjectures about what they imply past and present about their place in politics and commerce in America.The 8 color pages in the center could be put to better use, such as putting more pictures on each page, but that's really just a minor detail.

Make your daughter read this book!

Pink Think is hysterically funny...but I'm in my mid-40's and I grew up with a lot of the "Pink Think" examples in this book. I urged my 25-year old daughter to read it so she could better understand the environment I grew up in. This book is worth reading just for the entertainment value, but it also serves as a wonderful reminder of how much attitudes about women have changed and improved.