Ballistic Cheesecake: Tactical Girls with Guns

We realize that our perceptual vigilance regarding Girls with Guns is more active than most people's. But we're darned if we don't see these pistol-packing babes everywhere. They are in movies and magazines, video games, and comic books. One of our favorites is a Girls with Guns crossover into pinup calendars called TacGirls.

The origin of the pinup is either ancient or more recent history, depending on whom you consult. Her arrival on the scene is thought to be anytime between cave drawings as decorative art to racy postcards decorating early 20th century doughboys' barracks.

We will draw the line at the ability of the viewer to actually pin the image up, as opposed to hanging it as an art canvas or integrating it with architecture as a fresco. We also think the ephemeral aspect of the image is also integral to the definition of a true pin-up. Whether it's a Gibson Girl beauty clipped out of a magazine, or a Vargas girl on a 1940's calendar, the throw-away nature of the image is key.

The degree of smuttiness is also a factor. Pinups range from kinky bondage, such as Irving Klaw's photographic work with Betty Page, to the innocent gee-whizz cheesecake honeys of The Saturday Evening Post's Gil Elvgren.

Which brings us back to TacGirl's calendar. Those of you, like us, who love a girl with a gun, should check out this website (and/or their booth at the national gun shows) for some great contemporary Girls with Guns pinups. Admittedly, it is a bit of a toss-up as to whether it's the guns or the scantily clad models who provide the bigger thrill for TacGirls calendar's producers. But we get the feeling it's the girls who are the accessories in photos cataloguing an incredible, almost science fiction, array of high-tech rifles.

Besides TacGirls touting themselves as connoisseurs of fine firearms, providing a display not unlike high-performance car catalogues, they also claim not to show any more skin than the cover of the average women's fashion magazine. Keeping their artwork in such prim parameters, without use of direct sexuality, qualifies them as producers of "ballistic cheesecake."