Wolf-Women and Phantom Ladies: Female Desire in 1940s US Culture

334 Pages·2015·7.501 MB·English

by  Steven Dillon

WOLF‑WOMEN
and
PHANTOM LADIES
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SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory
——————
Michelle A. Massé, editor
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WOLF‑WOMEN
and
PHANTOM LADIES
Female Desire in 1940s US Culture
STEVEN DILLON
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Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Eileen Nizer
Marketing, Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Dillon, Steven, 1960–
Wolf-Women and Phantom Ladies : Female Desire in 1940s US Culture / Steven
Dillon.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5579-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5581-5 (e-book)
1. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Women in lit-
erature. 3. Desire in literature. 4. Women in popular culture. 5. Women—Sexual
behavior—Psychological aspects. I. Title.
PS173.W6D55 2015
810.9'352042—dc23 2014020287
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To the Bangor Public Library
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Introduction: Sexual Visibility, or, The Duel in the Sun 1
2. Diana Trilling, Female Desire, and the Study of Popular Culture 19
3. The Waiting Room: Female Desire in Women’s Wartime Fiction 45
4. He-Wolves and She-Wolves: From Tex Avery to Jackson Pollock 71
5. Phantom Ladies: On the Radio and Out of the Closet 105
6. White Female Desire Wearing the Masks of Color 139
7. What Young Women Want: From High School to College 177
8. The Power and the Horror: Male and Female Cultural Spaces 207
Conclusion. Two Phantom Women: Ruth Herschberger and
Elizabeth Hawes 241
Notes 251
Selected Bibliography 301
Index 315
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Acknowledgments
The digital universe has greatly aided my research. Cartoons, educational
films, B-movies, and popular songs that would have been hard to track
down ten years ago can often be found on YouTube. Google’s archived
newspapers and magazines supplied numerous key examples. A spec-
tacularly useful source for all things 1940s, the Internet Archive (www.
archive.org) helped especially with radio programs and radio magazines.
J. David Goldin’s RadioGoldindex (radiogoldindex.com), although necessar-
ily incomplete, provides an extremely helpful searchable archive. My com-
plete run of Tiger Girl in Fight Comics came from The Digital Comic Museum
(digitalcomicmuseum.com); thanks very much!
Of course the world has not yet been completely digitized. Many of
my 1940s magazines were purchased at a local antiques shop, Little Orphan
Annie’s, from Dan Poulin, who gave me a square deal each and every time.
As far as source material goes, my greatest debt is to the Bangor Public
Library, who sent Bates College hundreds of items from their enormous
collection of 1940s popular books. No other Maine library—academic or
otherwise—comes close to this collection, and I’m not sure how I would
have completed this study without their willingness both to keep these
books and then to send them out.
Thanks very much to the SUNY Press readers, who gave of their
time to read a long manuscript and whose excellent suggestions I have
incorporated. I have also benefitted from editorial advice offered by Beth
Bouloukos. Over the years I have received needed encouragement from
Kathy Williamson and Liz Dillon.
ix
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