Bettie Page

Bettie Page died today, a frail woman in her eighties. She lived in anonymity well past the period in which she was hailed as a sexual siren. 

She represented excess. Bettie also represented a sublimated Sado-Masochism that surfaced during the sexually repressive 1950s. 

I am left wondering if Bettie was expressing sexual agency, really embodying the message of her image, or was she just performing? Maybe I'm just caught off guard by the low production values of some of her magazine covers or the contrived postures she posed in.