Download The Jet Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon AudioBook Free
Within the years after World Conflict II, the flight stewardess became one of the very most celebrated icons of American womanhood. Stewardesses came out on magazine ranges, on lecture circuits, and in advertisement campaigns for everything from milk to smoking. Airlines enlisted them to pose for publicity images, mingle with international dignitaries, and even serve (in sequined minidresses) as the official hostesses at Richard Nixon's inaugural ball. Embodying mainstream America's perfect female, the stewardess was an ambassador of femininity and the American way both at home and in foreign countries. Young, beautiful, unmarried, sensible, wonderful, and nurturing, she encouraged young girls everywhere you go to set their sights on the sky. In The Plane Intimacy, Victoria Vantoch explores in rich aspect how multiple forces-business strategy, advertising, contest, sexuality, and Chilly War politics-cultivated a graphic of the stewardess that reflected America's vision of itself, from the wholesome girl-next-door of the 1940s to the cosmopolitan glamour female of the Plane Time to the captivating playmate of the 1960s. Though airlines advertised her as the consummate hostess-an expert at pampering her typically male people, while mixing up martinis and allaying their anxieties of flying-she bridged the gap between the idealized 1950s housewife and the appearing "working female." Within the international level, this go for cadre of women offered as ambassadors of the land in the propaganda clashes of the Chilly War. The stylish Pucci-clad American stewardess displayed the United States as middle class and consumer oriented-hallmarks of capitalism's success and a stark comparison to her counterpart at Aeroflot, the Soviet national flight. As the apotheosis of womanly charm and North american careerism, the stewardess subtly bucked traditional gender assignments and paved just how for the women's movement. Pulling on industry archives and hundreds of interviews, this lively cultural history offers a fresh perspective on the sweeping changes in twentieth-century American life.The publication is published by College or university of Pa Press.
