Photo courtesy allposters.com


I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn’t know any other way to be, or any other way to live. — Bettie Page

Iconic figure in pop culture dies

Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in attire that ranged from skimpy to none-at-all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85.

She influenced fashion and sexuality; became the subject of songs, biographies, Web sites, comic books, movies and documentaries.

Her reign as an American Aphrodite extended into her later years when a new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos. Some feminists have hailed her as a pioneer of women's liberation.

"Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds."

Nudity didn't bother her, she said: "God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds."

You can read about her denunciation by moralists, her congressional investigation, her hounding by federal agents, her failed marriages and nervous breakdowns and her acute schizophrenia at the links below.

Later in life, she had an epiphany and became a born again Christian. When she tried to serve as a missionary, after attending bible school, she was turned down because she was a divorcée.


Angel in bondage gear

With all of the turbulence in her life, she never found the lasting inner peace that she searched for in the second half of her life; never wore the 'halo of evangelism.'

No, she remained the angel—the fallen angel—pinned to many a wall/cyber wall across the nation.

Links:

The Associated Press

The Bettie Page

The Telegraph.co.uk

Time Online