Crash Course in Gothabilly style and Pin Up Revival

So we've been watching Mad Men in class and viewing and discussing the importance of clothing, how it represents who we are and what we feel about ourselves. The clothing of the late 1950's early 1960's had a lot going for it:

From pretty little sweet-heart necked teacup dresses, cinched at a woman's natural waist, rather than what has become our "low waist" or basically where our hips end, to the sassy sundresses, pencil skirts, garter belts and hose that pin up models often wore (or were fantasized about while imagining them wearing) to  the  dress:

The point was that the clothing emphasized a woman's natural curves, as well as simultaneously hiding them for the most part. Clothing of the '50's and '60's stressed the cultural ideal, that a woman was a woman above all else, and that her body was only revealed (like her thoughts) in a socially acceptable way. She was seen while being invisible, in that she was viewed only in the way she wanted to be by society.

The modern (small, but growing) movement of Gothabilly mixes the cute kitsch of '50's and '60's dresses and hairstyles with today's expressionism, tattoos, leather, darker make up, and more skin. I think this is representative of cherishing the idealized icons of the old (Classic pinups, a time where realistic women's bodies were the height of sexual attraction, pre-Twiggy), while speaking out against the constraints women of that era were subjected to. A throwback to the pin ups of that time with the added bonus of tattoos and leather, corsets, pencil skirts, cherry motifs, (that do not just belong to Katy Perry), accompanied with a fondness for vintage cars and motorcycles.

Oh hey there it's me!

Ultimately I think this is my generation's answer (even if it is rooted in the 1980's via the music group The Cramps) to the women of Mad Men --- we're saying yes, we hear you, even though you didn't speak what you wanted to say. We're still like you in image, but we thank you for suffering in silence so we don't have to, and for letting us keep your clothes. We're speaking of our own social anxieties, in that we want to reclaim the style and aesthetics of our parents and grandparents, but without the societal conservative manner, so we make what was once a style of subjugation our own by adding tattoos and more makeup; a different context. We want to be unique and beautiful snowflakes while still being part of an exclusive club... so maybe we really aren't so different than our fore(mothers?) after all?

Gothabilly = in a nutshell is more Bettie Page than Betty Grable.