Stuffed And Mounted: Blonde, Redhead, Or Brunette?
Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s there seems to have been a bit of fad, trope, or fetish around visuals of stuffed and mounted human heads in the style of taxidermied big game trophies. You might think this was horribly misogynist (and it surely was) but guys got objectified this way also. What I did not know until today is that the whole uneasy business went so far, you could literally order plastic “Conquest” trophy mounts from the back pages of sleazy magazines. Per the charming sales copy, “one of the nicest qualities is that they don’t talk back!”
Who knew that the uncanny valley problem was alive and well in the pre-digital age?
This advertisement comes from the September 1959 issue of Guy magazine, and the text reads:
“Stuffed” Girl’s Heads! only $2.98
Blondes, redheads and brunettes for every man to boast of his conquests… the first realistic likeness of the exciting women who play an important part in every man’s life… and one of the nicest qualities is that they don’t talk back! Accurately modelled to three-quarters life size of real gals and molded of skin-textured pliable plastic, these heads are so life-like they almost breathe. Saucy glittering full sensuous mouth and liquid satin complexion combined with radiant hair colors give astonishing realism to these rare and unique Trophies. Blonds, redhead or brunette mounted on a genuine mahogany plaque is complete and ready to hang on the wall for excitement and conversation. Only $2.98 plus 37¢ shipping charges. Full Money Back Guarantee. Specify Blonde, Brunette or Red head. Send Cash, Check, or Money Order, or order C.O.D. from:
Honor House Products Corp.
Dept. MT-22
Lynbrook, New York
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This has the trope that women are mainly distinguished by the colour of their hair! I wonder if that was a euphemism? A convention to help artists who did not want to work hard? Or was it just part of the misogynistic voice of postwar pop culture?
I don’t know about “mainly”, but that was absolutely a thing. In shorthand description of women, I think the commonest phrasing was a two-word descriptor where the first was a gesture at body type and the second was hair color, thus “busty blonde”, “stacked brunette”, “svelte redhead”, and so forth. And I’m not sure “postwar” works here unless you’re talking the Great War — I would loosely associate all this with the half-century that began with the Roaring 20s and ended with the sexual revolution and the so-called Summer of Love.
Maybe it already showed up in some ’20s and ’30s pulps, I associate it with noir films and Archie comics. Maybe its tied up into race in pop culture too? The frequent assumption (especially in things like advertising) that the hero’s love interest must have northwest European ancestry unless they are an EXOTIC FEMME FATALE so you can describe them in shorthand?