College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-eds, Then and Now

The author of Pink Think takes on a twentieth-century icon: the college girl.

A geek who wears glasses? Or a sex kitten in a teddy? This is the dual vision of the college girl, the unique American archetype born when the age-old conflict over educating women was finally laid to rest. College was a place where women found self-esteem, and yet images in popular culture reflected a lingering distrust of the educated woman. Thus such lofty cultural expressions as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960)...