42: The Tender Trap

The phrase "tender trap" essentially didn't exist before the mid-1950s, entering common usage from the film and song which were both popularised by Frank Sinatra. The image of being lured into your downfall by a thing pretending to be soft speaks to a basic element of what it is to be human, and people all over the world have projected their emotions, hangups and life experiences onto this simple concept. This week, we examine Sinatra's classic film and song, plus the original play, then take a look at the many manifestations of the "tender trap" ever since, exploring 70 years of human sexuality and emotion.

Selected references:

• Pamela Robinson Wojcik - The Apartment Plot: Urban Living in American Film (2010)
• The article about the musical they do in High School Musical
• Marjorie Holmes - I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God (1969) and Second Wife, Second Life (1993)
• Michael Walsh - How to Undo a Maiden (1971)
• Transvestia magazine, issue #110. "The Gift" by J. Reviere. (1971)
• Howard Cosell - Like It Is (1974)
• Seductress magazine, issue #6 (pornography) (1970s?)
• The Tender Trap (1978) (pornography)
• Gay Barchives - Interview with Doug Rehrer about The Tender Trap, Pittsburgh (2020)
• Ron Nyswaner - Blue Days, Black Nights (2004)
• Jay Matthews - "Youthful Lovers in China Find They Are Caught in a Tender Trap" 17 December 1978, Washington Post
• Alexander Abdennur - The Conflict Resolution Syndrome: Volunteerism, Violence, and Beyond
• The Sapphire Room (1997)
• Dave Damiani - "The Tinder App" (2016)
• Madeleine Davies - "Don't Fall for the Tender Trap" 13 July 2017, Jezebel
• The Tender Trap (2021, New Zealand)
• Interview with Sharon Armstrong, Woman Magazine NZ, 1 March 2021
• Death Trap aka The Tender Trap (1974) starring Vincent Price

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