With the recent release of ‘my week with MARILYN,’ I began contemplating the concept of beauty, femininity and how much this has changed over the last forty or so years, when women began burning their bras to make a statement about women’s liberation.
Though Marilyn’s beauty and blatant sexuality came out into the open, she was not the first, but her impact was like a title wave that blanketed the nation, and was felt internationally. Even to this day, she still has a viable effect among people of both sexes and imitators emulating Marilyn’s mystic.
Marilynn Monroe
Marilyn’s beauty certainly was radiant but she had a rival, one who personified a darker side of sexuality. Bettie Page, a risqué and often fetishistic model, who with her provocativeness distinctive bangs, made sexiness seem fun and tantalizing. She was also featured in Playboy, as Playmate, January 1955 and though her career only lasted seven years and yet Bettie Page is still the most recognizable icon of the fifties, beside Marilyn.
Bettie Page and the HBO 2006 movie poster
Betty Grable in her white one piece swimsuit and
Rita Hayward’s famous pose in a black negligee
When America entered into the World War II in 1941, it also marked the beginning of the golden age of pin-up’s that lasted mid-through the fifties before declining. One of the most memorable photographs was Rita Hayward’s famous pose in a black negligee, which quickly made a big hit among the US service men stationed in Europe. However, in first place was Betty Grable, with her white one piece swimsuit and high heels.
There were also illustration of women, who, while smiling, revealed a little intimate apparel in a range of clothing-challenged situations. These were drawings or paintings by artists like Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, and Zoe Mozert, the only female artist in a male dominated field, showing us what the ideal of feminism is.
Mona by Gil Elvgren
Though as a teen I was exposed to these pin-up’s at repair garages or gas stations, my fascination with pin-up’s came about in the form of ‘bomber art’ found on the noses of Boeing B-17 bombers and other US military airplanes, because I was an airplane buff and at one point wanted to be a pilot. Apart from the pin-up nose illustrations, the crew chose to name the art, which in turn, their aircraft was referred to during radio transmissions. Names like Temptations, Devil’s Darling, Irish Lassie, Texas Doll, Upstairs Maid, and Carolina Moon.
In my impressionable early teen years, during the hippie era, rug induced wild times and free love—a movement carving out a new direction of social thinking and lifestyle—my concept of sexuality began taking shape. As the years passed and other influences began taking hold, I started gravitating to the music and film noir of the forties, when women were women and men, men.
It was a time when both sexes understood their rolls and though I have no problem with woman’s emancipation or equality between the sexes, I feel what it means to be truly feminine is lost today. That one confuses femininity with showing a lot of skin and dressing coquettish, rather than stylish.
Beauty, sexiness and brains—some of my favorite icons
Femininity and sexiness is first a state of mind, one that comes from within the person. It is then adorned through clothing and accessories, like jewelry, perfume and above all, with attitude and personality.
When you dress in intimate apparel and clothing to please your mate or lover, you are betraying yourself and what you present is nothing more than a facade. However, if you first dress to please yourself, you will feel good, your confidence level is up. In the end, you will project a radiance that in turn ultimately nurtures your inner sexiness and you will feel feminine.
Obviously there is nothing wrong with dressing for your mate or lover, but be aware that you must come first before you can think of anyone else. For in this lies the secrete to being feminine and sexy.
A scene from Billy Wilder’s Some Like it Hot
In this photograph, Marilyn is natural and truly herself
Thank you for your visit
E.A.
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