Summary:
Bettie Page was a "taboo-breaker who helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s." Bettie Mae Page is known to this day as the queen of pin up girls. She’s right up there with Marilyn Monroe, being obsessed over by men everywhere.
Bettie was born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1923 on April 22. She had been the oldest child in a family consisting of 6 children. Her mother, Edna, according to Bettie, had not wanted girls; therefore, she never taught Bettie to cook or sew. Bettie had always wished she had a mother who paid attention to her by going to her school shows, her high school graduation, etc. (none of which her mother did). On top of having an uninterested mother, her father, Roy, molested Bettie, along with her other two sisters. Edna only divorced Roy, though, when finding out he impregnated a teenage girl. Bettie missed out on getting a scholarship to Vanderbilt University and having the title of valedictorian in high school by a quarter of a grade point because of an incident with her mother’s lover at this time. Bettie had been pulled into the man’s car and her mother became infuriated because of this. Edna kicked Bettie out and she moved in with her father. Bettie had final exams coming up and all of her notes were at her moms, she was unable to study and didn’t do as well as she could have. This incident was “the worse disappointment of my life,” Bettie said.
Bettie tried working as a teacher and then a secretary- all of which did not work out for her. She married three times. While in New York enrolled in acting class, Bettie met Jerry Tibbs who had suggested she have bangs because of her forehead that stuck out quite a bit. He was a photographer who began photographing her, causing her to become “an underground sensation” overnight. Bettie caught the eye of the Klaws’ who put her in their peekaboo short films and photographed her in bondage (whips, tied up in chairs, wrestling with other women, etc.). Out of all the modeling Bettie had done throughout her career, this aspect of it she regrets.
Bettie photographed from 1949-1957 in all types of modeling gigs. Bettie was even a centerfold in Playboy in January of 1955. She has been considered “the trendsetter in American sexuality,” “The Dark Marilyn,” and even “The Queen of Curves,” having the following measurements: 36-24-37. Hugh Hefner said Bettie, was a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern.”
Bettie quit modeling in 1958 when she decided to move to Florida with her second husband. Only a few weeks into the marriage when he said he’d rather get drunk with his friends than go out dancing with Bettie, she ran out hysterically crying to a church down the street. She became a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade and began studying the Bible as a newborn Christian from that point on. Bettie takes the most pride in her work in the Crusade.
After the Bettie’s divorce in 1978 with her third husband, she began having “violent mood swings” in which she attacked her landlord with a knife during one incident. She had been found innocent by reason of insanity and had been sentenced to 10 years in a mental hospital-San Bernardino's Patton State Hospital. She was released in 1922 and discovered a newfound interest in her photographs. Bettie signed several pictures because having her autograph on as many things as possible was vital because it was so valuable. She was depicted in a movie, in comics, and the Internet traffic on her website to this day is that of a cult! Within the last years of Bettie’s life, she trusted few people and rarely went out. She requested not being photographed because she wants to be remembered “when I was young and in my golden times.... I want to be remembered as a woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form.” She passed away on December 11, 2008 from pneumonia a week after suffering a heart attack.
Analysis:
Bettie Page had a rough childhood having grown up with a neglectful mother and a father who molested her. She had so much potential academically to grow up to be extremely successful in ways other than she did. Because her childhood changed her plans in her life, she was set on a different path, the path that gave her the title of the Queen of Pinup girls. She began a revolution in a time where sexuality wasn’t very out in the open. She made a statement with her photographs and stirred up a lot of controversy. She believed that there was no harm in being in the nude, unless done in a promiscuous way. She said God sent Adam and Eve down in the nude- it’s natural and beautiful. Although her life didn’t go the way she had planned, and she never quite understood why she had been looked upon as so beautiful and obsessed over by millions… she ended up a legend and changed so much in the industry.
Reflection Questions:
Why did Bettie not see how beautiful a woman she was?
Why did Bettie go crazy after her third divorce?
Sahagun, L. (2006, March 11). A golden age for a pin up. Los Angeles Times, Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/11/local/me-bettie11
