Mae West: Swagger & Sex

While you’re sleeping, college professors in Hungary are thinking about MAE WEST. Here’s a long, striking research paper you might have missed. This is Part 46.
• • "Mae West. The Dirty Snow White" • •
• • Written by:  Zsófia Anna Tóth
• • Swagger and Sex • •
• • Zsófia Anna Tóth wrote: Molly Haskell addresses this issue by writing that Mae West:  “[i]n her size, her voice, her boisterous one-liners, and her swagger, there was something decidedly, if parodistically, masculine. But she was a woman, and she thus stretched the definition of her sex” (116).
• • Zsófia Anna Tóth wrote:   Joan Mellen argues likewise and states that West, with her exaggerated femininity, is much more a “transvestite” than a real woman, and she suggests that this is “a mockery of female sexuality by flaunting what are no more than ordinary female attributes” (243). Stella Bruzzi adds that “[t]he transvestite image” actually “is a fault line, a crack between sex and gender, a site of ambiguity and change” (157). West’s several campy drag performances as a result put “femininity into quotations marks” (Bruzzi 165).
• • Not Born a Woman • •   . . .
• • This was Part 46 of a lengthy article. Part 47 will follow tomorrow.   
• • Source: Americana — — E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary; Vol. XI, No. 1, Spring 2015.
• • On Saturday, 9 April 1927 • •
• • The front page of The New York Times warned Broadway producers and notables like Mae West that the police had been empowered by City Hall and the cops could now close a show faster than a bad review from the drama desk.
• • This headline dominated page one of The New York Times on Saturday, 9 April 1927: "Ready to Enforce New Padlock Law.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • For years many collectors have only dreamt of being able to view pieces owned by celebrities like Mae West.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  “A thrill a day keeps the chill away."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • Billboard mentioned Mae West.
• • "TV Satire Series for Mae West" • •
• • Hollywood, April 24 — First six scripts of a proposed 26-episode tele-film series starring Mae West in satires on famous romantic heroines of history and literature have been completed by the actress and William LeBaron, who will produce. The latter is due in New York early next week to conduct negotiations for national sponsorship.
• • The six scripts already completed and ready for the cameras are half-hour episodes based on incidents in the lives of Priscilla and John Alden, Camille and Armand, Cleopatra, Madame DuBarry, Fatima, and Lady Hamilton.  . . .
• • Source: Billboard Magazine; published on Saturday, 1 May 1954
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 13th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past thirteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,800 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started thirteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3935th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • on a Cracker Jack mystery card, in 1934 • •
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