The Sex Goddess in American Film, 1930–1965: Jean Harlow, Mae Wes ...

does she appear that way? An analysis of formal cinematic elements can reveal the cinematic image of the sex goddess. The actress’ body is most often shaped like the traditional Alberto Vargas pin-up girl: curvy, voluptuous, possessing the classical dimensions of a large bosom, small waist, wide hips, and long, shapely legs, with an overall slight figural plumpness. Her face reveals symmetrical features, with large, widely set eyes, a small slim nose, high cheekbones, and a delicate heart-shaped face with full lips. Her complexion, with the aid of Max Factor, is flaw-less, and her hair is long, soft, and smoothly swept back from her face. She often first appears on screen scantily or suggestively dressed in tight fitting or revealing costumes, usually composed of long, white, flowing satin or diaphanous silk gowns, punctuated with sparkling diamond pins or earrings that are also reflected in the light of her luminous eyes. Backlighting, a cinematic technique, is used to create a halo-like glow which bathes her bared skin in radiance. Full-body shots reveal the soft curves of her ample figure while soft-focus close-ups on her face serve to blur the boundary for the viewer's gaze between reality and romantic fantasy. Hers is a hyper-femininity seemingly taken to its extreme, embodied in every aspect of her movement and appearance.

In her discussion of Marilyn Monroe's character Lorelei in Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Maureen Turim mentions another significant aspect of the American sex goddess—with a few notable exceptions, she is usually blonde. In her discussion, Turim (re)asserts the often held yet rarely openly articulated feminist view that, “Blond-ness is a cultural fetish, the sexual idea of a racist society” (108). Here, Turim rather too casually applies a backformation of the racial overtones of German WWII Aryan supremacy to the 1950s cinematic appearance of blondeness, as well as to Anita Loos’ 1920s text. While recognizing that certainly not all cinematic sex goddesses are “blonde” or even of Caucasian appearance, a large percentage of American film sex goddesses fall into this category and continue to influence popular culture, especially as the image of sex goddess is copied and cultivated by young, female celebrities, often across racial boundaries, from Madonna to Jessica Simpson to Beyoncé Knowles. In her landmark book On Blondes,