last summer, i read this biography of Mae West by Marybeth Hamilton. i've never really seen her most popular films, but i do remember seeing My Little Chickadee when i was a young kid, and kind of loving MW because of it. "When I'm Bad I'm Better" is really really interesting because it is a hardcore bio, but it's also kind of a thesis on the arc of sex in American culture during the first half of the 20th century.
a huge part of the book's thesis involves West's relationship with camp. in the 20s and 30s her acts borrowed heavily from current homosexual culture; she saw herself as a mouthpiece for a subculture. what's funny/tragic is that in the 60s and 70s when camp as we know it was solidifying as a social phenomenon, Mae West still saw herself as cutting edge, but by sticking to her old act she became more and more of an object of irony.
(here Mae West is trying to whip her socio-cultural status into shape)
anyway, so i've been thinking about Miss Mae a lot over the last year, which is why i was especially excited to see this Jean-Paul Goude spread in Harper's Bazaar starring Laetitia Casta.
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