College Girls

A geek who wears glasses? Or a sex kitten in a teddy? This is the dual vision of the college girl, the unique American archetype born when the age-old conflict over educating women was finally laid to rest. College was a place where women found self-esteem, and yet images in popular culture reflected a lingering distrust of the educated woman. Thus such lofty cultural expressions as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) and a raft of naughty pictorials in men's magazines. As in Pink Think, Lynn Peril combines women's history and popular culture-peppered with delightful examples of femoribilia from the turn of the twentieth century through the 1970s-in an intelligent and witty study of the college girl, the first woman to take that socially controversial step toward educational equity.