For 13 year old boys in the early mid 1970s, who had zero actual experience
in what makes women desirable, we were completely dependent on cultural
signifiers. There was a naughty Farmer’s Daughter context for Mary Anne’s
sexuality, but for the relatively sheltered early teens I ran with that was
less accessible than Ginger’s Marilyn Monroe story, which even
pre-pubescent boys were familiar with.

 My preference for Mary Ann had more to do with a family culture which had
always been somewhat condescending to the Monroe persona.

On Thu, 31 Dec 2020 at 7:59 AM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 4:45 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> And I was always a Mary Ann guy...
>>
>> When I was a kid most boys my age were strongly Ginger, then sometime in
>> my 20s the tide shifted toward Mary Ann. I was never sure if that was a
>> developmental (guys gradually maturing out of a sex pot obsession) or
>> cultural (tide turning away from the more artificial, manufactured persona
>> towards a putatively more natural and honest appeal) effect.
>>
>
> I'm surprised there was a pro-Ginger faction. I always thought the Ginger
> vs Mary Ann question was extremely biased toward Mary Ann because Ginger
> was aloof, self centered, and high maintenance. Mary Ann was independent
> and accessible.
>
> I also Ginger vs Mary Ann came at the end of a singular White cultural
> phenomenon. From watching movies from the decades preceding the 1950s we
> see diversity in what was seen as sexy in White women. When Marilyn Monroe
> emerged it's like she generated a gravity field around her. For the culture
> her persona defined sexiness and women were seen as sexy when trying to be
> like her. That template didn't break until the mid-60s when youth culture
> promoted other looks as sexy. Ginger was Monroe style and Mary Ann was
> closer to the new sensibility.
>
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