Although the "pin-up" gets its name from the act of display it encourages, which might apply to any mass produced and widely distributed image, the term commonly identifies a more narrow category of pictures, from glossy portraits of Hollywood stars to Playboy's monthly "centerfolds." With an even tighter focus, "pinups" usually designate pictures of pretty girls wearing skimpy bathing suits, exotic lingerie, or sometimes even less, in "sexy" images that only the most puritanical viewer would now condemn as obscene. The term's most evocative use recalls the drawn, painted, or photographed representations of idealized, all-American femininity produced in the decades surrounding World War II. While the pin-up has obvious precursors in naughty French postcards from the turn of the twentieth century, and late variants like the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the form is exemplified by the odd balance of eroticism, innocence, healthiness, and patriotism...