Exploiting the Gaze? Women Workers in the Hula Girl Photo Industry in Wartime Hawai’i
Presentation Type
Event
Start Date
8-3-2026 11:18 PM
Description
This paper examines the “hula girl” souvenir photo industry in Hawai’i during the Second World War, where US servicemen posed with local women in staged tropical scenes. While these images can be read as playful mementos, they also evoke the male gaze, exoticism, and American imperialism. Using business history methods and sources such as job advertisements, press articles, and personal remembrances, the paper reveals women’s significant roles as models, photographers, printers, managers, and concession owners. Despite the industry’s problematic aspects, wages often surpassed other low‑status jobs, allowing women to exercise entrepreneurial agency and even exploit servicemen’s desires. The analysis complicates simplistic victim narratives and highlights women’s resourcefulness within wartime economies.
Dr. Pippa Oldfield is a curator and photo‑historian specializing in gender, conflict, history, and politics. She is Special Lecturer in Photography at Teesside University and former Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery. Her projects include the touring exhibition No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War and the book Photography and War. She is currently writing a new book on war and women’s photography for University of Texas Press.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Oldfield, Pippa, "Exploiting the Gaze? Women Workers in the Hula Girl Photo Industry in Wartime Hawai’i" (2026). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day. 57.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2026/schedule/57
Exploiting the Gaze? Women Workers in the Hula Girl Photo Industry in Wartime Hawai’i
This paper examines the “hula girl” souvenir photo industry in Hawai’i during the Second World War, where US servicemen posed with local women in staged tropical scenes. While these images can be read as playful mementos, they also evoke the male gaze, exoticism, and American imperialism. Using business history methods and sources such as job advertisements, press articles, and personal remembrances, the paper reveals women’s significant roles as models, photographers, printers, managers, and concession owners. Despite the industry’s problematic aspects, wages often surpassed other low‑status jobs, allowing women to exercise entrepreneurial agency and even exploit servicemen’s desires. The analysis complicates simplistic victim narratives and highlights women’s resourcefulness within wartime economies.
Dr. Pippa Oldfield is a curator and photo‑historian specializing in gender, conflict, history, and politics. She is Special Lecturer in Photography at Teesside University and former Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery. Her projects include the touring exhibition No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War and the book Photography and War. She is currently writing a new book on war and women’s photography for University of Texas Press.