This was a fun read, reviewing patriarchal and gender-defining thoughts and marketing in the 1940's-1960's. It's not particularly methodical or thorough, nor does it attempt to be, but full of period-relevant pictures, and artifacts. ( )

This was a good book for me because I never took any sort of women's studies, sociology, etc in college. This is written at a very general public level. Think James Lileks. It's anecdotal rather than analysis, which is what I wanted. It was very entertaining in a 'oh how could they?' sort of way. One of those books where I jotted down page numbers of particularly amusing bits, for passing along later, and ended up with rows and rows of numbers. ( )

A quick read that was at the same time horrifying and refreshing. Horrifying to hear, in such great detail, the stupid things that women were (and still are) encouraged to do to be "feminine." Refreshing as it makes me glad that I always rebelled against such things from a young age, and still do to this day. Femininity be damned. ( )

Peril provides an entertaining history of cultural ideas about "femininity" in America from the 1930's through the 1970's. Throughout the book are fascinating nuggets of "femorbilia" (to take the name of Peril's column in Bust magazine) such as marriage manuals, "fatty fiction", and ads encouraging women to douche with Lysol. Peril makes learning fun with easy, breezy writing style, cool sidebars, and plentiful pictures and illustrations. I heart this book! ( )

Think Pink analyzes the socially constructed feminine gender though the lens of pop culture. Advice books, education, fashion, television, household product marketing, magazines and movies all do their part to make sure growing girls are trained to accept their lot in life as the bearer of children. Dating and marriage just happened to be incidental steps. By comparison, books and magazines produced for boys encouraged them to become more fully rounded human beings.

Lynn Peril walks us through the evolution of femininity using various points of popular culture from the 1920s through the mid 1980s. Her wit and sense of humor with have you cracking up and feeling sad and pathetic by turns. Makes you wonder if we really are past the bad ole pre-feminism days.

You'll hunger for more of the mind blowing ads and images. I like how Peril grounds the information by including personal anecdotes so the book doesn't read like a dry text book.

This book will hold interest for folks into a lot of topics including sociology, gender and American pop culture.