When she did "Jungle BettY" she was 33, and at the time of her retirement (1958), she was 36. She was young, but a fair shot from inducing a Lolita complex.

I was 18 when I first put a name to (Jungle) Betty Page's face, and I was still enthralled.

ON the day it printed her obit, the NY Times printed two stunning photos of Ms. Page: one in black stockings, garters and underwear, and the other in a two-piece swimsuit at the seashore. In the underwear photo, she had an impish smile which implied that naughty can be terribly nice. In the swimsuit picture, she just looked delighted to be outdoors in the water, and to be young and very attractive. She was irresistible.

Here's a link to a small grainy picture of my favorite Betty Page Photo.

Don't know if it is a bad idea to link to a nude photo, but in my opinion the photo is entirely harmless (my kids have seen the better copy of the photo in the Bunny Jeager book I have, and they weren't at all traumatized).

If I get yelled at, oh well.

http://www.bettiepage.com/photos/jungle/jungle17.html

Should it be surprising to anyone that Bettie Page wanted to be remembered for what she was best at. A bright but ordinary teacher, secretary, housewife - she was a world-class model. Not only because she was attractive --- she was hardly unique in that - but because her up-beat attitude radiated through the camera to the viewer. She made it obvious that she was having fun doing it. Bettie Page was, and remains, a super-star, in a genre that Kate Harding has difficulty facing 50 years later.

The idea that Bettie Page's choice is to be understood in the light of a paucity of options at that time, casts harsh judgement on a women who makes a similar choice in 2008. Since there must be, at minimum. 10,000 times the number of women choosing erotic employment options today, despite the availability of myriad career paths, I find Harding's underlying attitude - "She couldn't possibly have been doing this because she wanted to." - priggish, curiously judgmental and profoundly anti-woman. If feminism is at root humanism, liberation from sexist attitudes must include liberation from the presumption of victimization that some women place on erotic employment, in the diluted name of "feminism."

Webcat covered it perfectly. Bettie Page is the poster girl for third-wavers because her pictures never seemed like desperation. She always looked like she was having a good time.

As for the crack about the feminazis on Salon, please troll away. Seriously.

Can't we all just get along?

Somebody needs to take a Midol

Pity party??

No wonder you use 'squalor".

You are an angry little idiot.

This is my final response to you.

Sorry to interrupt your little self-pity party there, guy, but I'm also a woman. And a feminist. And on the record as a Bettie Page fan in this very thread. You really shouldn't assume that all the people with androgynous screen names are men, you know?

among these posts.

Sue, you ARE a woman who understnads what it's all about.

Your post was warm and objective and honest.

I am not surprised that, due to the feminazi attitude of Salon that there would be only one woman who was not intimidated by Bettie and also understands that, most of the women who pose like this actually laugh at the ogler knowing that the oglers are actually the ones being used.

I would have enjoyed meeting and talking with Bettie as, I believe she was a complete person and, probably more complete than many.

R.I.P. Bettie

In my Bettie Page obit, I talk about her celebration of natural nudity and of her mischevious approach to kinky and fetish poses.

http://suekatz.typepad.com/sue_katz_consenting_adult/2008/12/bettie-page-1923-2008.html

I've long admired her and mourn her passing.

Sue

I wasn't around then, but my impression is that Bettie projected a singular message in her day, of an innocence that enjoyed sexuality and saw nothing wrong or suspect about it, only fun! Even the naughtiness was nothing but nice.

Which would have been revolutionary in that era?

I've spent a couple hours today looking over photography and particularly the Klaw film footage, and I'll add too that I have never seen that look in anyone else's eyes, nor could I do it justice in words, other than "truly unique."

She had ever right to be proud, and remembered as she pleased.

Sorry, I was too excited when I wrote that last letter, and did not proof read it very well.

I meant to write; between two leopards.

The cover of the book has a picture of Betty Page leaning against a piece of driftwood at the beach while wearing a tight leopard print one-piece bathing suit, and she gives the camera (or viewer) a powerfully alluring menacing look that would bring a smile to any fan of playful S&M.

Calling Betty Page the first Dominatrix was wrong, as I doubt she was a Dominatrix outside of the image she created in photos, but it was the first main stream image of a Dominatrix.

PS The other models in the Bunny Jeager book are also totally stunning and powerful (but Betty Page got the cover).

It is in the book "Bunny's Honeys: Bunny Jeager, Queen of Pin-Up Photography".

Betty Page is sitting on her knees completely nude (except for a metal arm band on her right upper arm) between two, with a hand on the head of each Leopard.

The photo is in black in white, but it fills the whole page, and the look in her eyes truly CAPTIVATES me.

PS I did have a digital photo of Betty Page wearing the leopard print lingerie (that she made herself) on my computer desktop for years.

Maybe she wasn't complete nude in that photo.

I downloaded the leopard photos years ago, and have long since forgotten where I got them from, but it was really the look on her face that captived me (I'll go back through my collection later on today).

But I had/have a lot of completely nude photos of her.

BTW that was a great nerve.com with a great interview, but I couldn't find the picture on Betty Page when she was 80.