Lesson Six: Sex in 1915
So, D. was just recommending a 1940s movie to me, because it “broke the happily-ever-after rule” that had come to be expected of early movies.
But my Lesson Six was a lesson in tragedy, and a very early unhappily ever after! 1915. A Fool There Was, and what a fool there was! I added this as an essential lesson in film history, because it stars Theda Bara, allegedly Hollywood’s very first “sex symbol.” Here she is in all her sexiness:
But it ended up being an excellent lesson in 1915 gender stereotypes, marriage and propriety, standards of beauty, and male retardedness. For any random geek girl out there who is at all inspired to check out silent movies, I would recommend this one as an entertaining start.
For as arcane as Muslim gender roles and rules of propriety sometimes seem to us in the West, this certainly makes me realize it wasn’t so long ago that our mentality was similar. Our “sex symbol” plays an unscrupulous, homewrecking golddigger, and her victim is completely spineless and manipulated. In one pivotal scene his cute ringleted daughter entreaties him to come back to the home he abandoned, but when his mistress enters, he is pathetically spellbound by her.
I don’t know. It was kind of morbidly fascinating, but it makes me wonder if love and relationships were really broken down so simplistically and puritanically back then. I imagine so. It makes me appreciate both of my savvy, sophisticated, and deeply complex grandmothers who were born not long after this film was made.
Sexy Theda Bara was decidedly unsexy, and I’m not really sure if this role (her breakout role) really merits the “sex symbol” status as she plays a vamp, but surely the villain of the movie. I don’t think the audience is meant to find her an alluring badgirl, but just a badgirl. Interestingly, when publicizing this picture, the studio made up an elaborate biography of Theda Bara, calling her “Arabian.” In reality, she was a Jewish girl from Ohio.
If there is any lasting message I could take from this movie it is that I have a lot more power as a woman than I give myself credit for. Aaaand, the kind of review that I can't be arsed to write right now is right here.
But my Lesson Six was a lesson in tragedy, and a very early unhappily ever after! 1915. A Fool There Was, and what a fool there was! I added this as an essential lesson in film history, because it stars Theda Bara, allegedly Hollywood’s very first “sex symbol.” Here she is in all her sexiness:
But it ended up being an excellent lesson in 1915 gender stereotypes, marriage and propriety, standards of beauty, and male retardedness. For any random geek girl out there who is at all inspired to check out silent movies, I would recommend this one as an entertaining start.
For as arcane as Muslim gender roles and rules of propriety sometimes seem to us in the West, this certainly makes me realize it wasn’t so long ago that our mentality was similar. Our “sex symbol” plays an unscrupulous, homewrecking golddigger, and her victim is completely spineless and manipulated. In one pivotal scene his cute ringleted daughter entreaties him to come back to the home he abandoned, but when his mistress enters, he is pathetically spellbound by her.
I don’t know. It was kind of morbidly fascinating, but it makes me wonder if love and relationships were really broken down so simplistically and puritanically back then. I imagine so. It makes me appreciate both of my savvy, sophisticated, and deeply complex grandmothers who were born not long after this film was made.
Sexy Theda Bara was decidedly unsexy, and I’m not really sure if this role (her breakout role) really merits the “sex symbol” status as she plays a vamp, but surely the villain of the movie. I don’t think the audience is meant to find her an alluring badgirl, but just a badgirl. Interestingly, when publicizing this picture, the studio made up an elaborate biography of Theda Bara, calling her “Arabian.” In reality, she was a Jewish girl from Ohio.
If there is any lasting message I could take from this movie it is that I have a lot more power as a woman than I give myself credit for. Aaaand, the kind of review that I can't be arsed to write right now is right here.