The Sex Goddess in American Film, 1930-1965
Jean Harlow, Mae West, Lana Turner, and Jayne Mansfield
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Recommended by CHOICE: "Lavishly illustrated ... Jordan's lively discussion of the commodification of the female body in the service of the classic Hollywood star system will offer ...readers genuine insights into the way the system worked and how these women manipulated it to their advantage."
From The Journal of Popular Culture, (Vol. 45.2): "Jessica Hope Jordan's The Sex Goddess in American Film, 1930-1965 makes unique contributions to popular film studies. Pluses for scholars are a very complete bibliography and an extensive listing of biographies and filmographies directly on the subject of sexy Hollywood women. Too many books on film and movie stars cut too wide and by trying to say everything they end up saying practically nothing. Jessica Jordan escapes this trap, and my guess it will be a model for other books on similar subjects" (Jerry Rodnitzky, University of Texas at Arlington).
The sex goddess's seemingly endless power to influence and fascinate, to achieve in a sense her own self-reproduction through many decades of "re-makeovers" reveals her positioning in American culture as not only a lasting image but also as a potentially powerful and subversive force. This is an important book for inclusion in all film, film history, film theory, gender and sexuality studies, women's studies, and American studies collections.
See the publisher website: Cambria Press
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