After much careful thought and a meeting with Professor Carroll, I am choosing an entirely different path for my thesis. I had even written an annotated bibliography for the old topic, so it was hard to commit to starting over. I'm glad I did, because it has changed the outlook for my entire thesis for the better.
For my new thesis, I will be researching historical (and present) representations of women in pinball art as it relates to popular culture and women's studies. I hope to reveal truths and misconceptions about pinball culture as a microcosm of popular culture (although the argument can be made that pinball is more of a counter-culture).
Below is what I learned about the early years of pinball, and how it shaped the market to resemble what it is today. I will need to connect this with how the pinball audience remained primarily male, and how that impacted artistic choices over time to create norms we see today.
The earliest designs of coin-operated pinball machines were made in the early 1930s, during the Great Depression. Game designs were (by today's standards) gender neutral. A proto-type for one of the first coin-operated pinball machines was created as a gift for the creator's daughter[1]. Early machines were marketed toward wealthy customers to use inside the home and had a high unit price. Soon after, inexpensive machines promising the same thrills were offered at much lower prices, and became hugely successful. Machines were soon found in drug-stores, bars, and penny arcades and offered an inexpensive way (one cent) for financially strapped people to find some enjoyment and forget their troubles for a moment or two. In order for newer machines to compete with current favorites, designers were constantly innovating, and the art had to be increasingly eye-catching. Pinball artwork became very colorful in the late 30s and early 40s and began to include figures. (It was during this time that women in bikinis and racial stereotypes leaped from the machine into the player's consciousness through its artwork, to captivate its predominantly male audience. Playing pinball became morally objectionable in the 30s as people criticizes frivolous Depression-era spending and started to associate it with gambling. Local and federal taxes and laws placed restrictions on the industry. The stigma of pinball as a gambling device and immoral activity increased with city-wide bans in places like Chicago (where many machines were produced!) and New York City.
It is important to understand the cultural and historical context around the creation of pinball art and perpetuation of specific themes, so I have included further questions to get the ideas flowing:
How does the continual drive to advance pinball technology contrast with art assets continually reasserting archaic gender assumptions? How and why do writers conflate nostalgia and history in writing about the subject of pinball art? What is nostalgia, if not the imaginary ideal point in space and time that celebrates the status quo the nostalgic party wants to preserve in the present day? How does this manifest itself in modern pinball artwork? What makes the history of pinball art good vs. bad history? What stories aren't being told? Would more women designers lead to more diversity in the content and purpose of pinball art? Do women care? Are the attitudes of players changing, and is the industry responding to potential changes or maintaining the status quo? How does advertising impact the interpretation and reception of pinball artwork?
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| "Body" refers to the wide-body machine, a machine with a wider cabinet than the standard pinball machine. Of course, it also refers here to the woman depicted. Advertisement copyright 1979, D. Gottlieb & Company. |
1. Bueschel, Richard M. The Pinball Encyclopedia. LaGrangeville, NY: Silverball Amusements, 1998.
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