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Vantoch, Victoria. The Jet Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press., 2013. 287 pp. $34.95
"Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away," crooned Frank Sinatra for the title track of his 1958 album for Capitol Records. Its illustrated cover features blue skies, open runways, and a TWA jet with the boarding ramp down and its glamorous icon, the TWA stewardess, waiting to welcome you on board so that your adventure could begin.
In the heyday of air travel, "airlines promoted an image of glamour that linked technology, consumerism, femininity, beauty, and American identity." The stewardess was the embodiment of these ideals, and this book traces the fascinating history of this captivating icon as female role model, national heroine, marketing device, and sex symbol. Vantoch provides a richly researched narrative to give the reader a 360-degree perspective of the trajectory of the stewardess throughout the twentieth century.
The book uses a seven-chapter format that begins with women aviators in the 1930s trying to find paid...