| Chapter Introduction: | Introduction |
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stereotype which did not actually exist, the sex goddesses Harlow, West, and Mansfield, as well as others are far from contemporary stereotypes; they instead resist contemporary stereotypes (“Kinda Comedy” 58). Far more interesting than this resistance is its opposite yet related effect; that of creating the desire within some feminine-identified women and gay men for the cultural imitation of the sex goddess’ image, a further effect which this book seeks to explore.
Audience Reception and Identification
In consideration of the cultural imitation and repetition of the image of the sex goddess, in “Feminine Fascinations: Forms of Identifications in Star-Audience Relations,” Jackie Stacey argues for “identificatory fantasies related to the cinematic context that involve fantasies about the relationship between the identity of the star and the identity of the spectator” (141). Through the application of reception as well as affect theory, I will show how audience participation in these identificatory practices works toward the popular cultural imitation and reproduction of the image of the sex goddess. While useful for formal cinematic analysis, as Robertson mentions, these “identificatory practices” rely upon “an aesthetics of femininity related to fashion, consumption, spectacle, and performance” (“Kinda Comedy” 67). Whereas Robertson identifies performance as indicative of gender performance in a social constructionist sense, or masquerade, specifically in relation to heterosexually-identified women, I would instead posit this performance as a heightening of an already realized sense of hyper or excessive femininity, one which expresses a desire for the pleasurable performance of a feminine aesthetic. Thus, while Robertson labels this “aesthetics of femininity” as an appropriation by female performers of gay camp, and additionally believes that this appropriation is what “enabled” West's “female fans…to distance themselves from sex and gender stereotypes, and to view women's everyday roles as female impersonation”(“Kinda Comedy” 69), I will endeavor to overturn the idea that the role of the sex goddess is inauthentic, an impersonation, or a stereotype and instead will argue for the recognition