March 22 2025

This Women in Literature class is intense y’all. Damn. But I am enjoying the heck out of it. I love the content, the books we are reading, and the one movie we’ve watched.
I now proclaim Mae West as my spirit animal-person.

Discussion Question: Claudia Pierpont pinpoints Mae West’s sexuality as a source of her power. What reasons does Pierpont give for Mae West’s success? Use quotations and page numbers.

Mae West absolutely tapped into sexuality as a source of power. She then harnessed this power using it to springboard her to success. She began as a writer for vaudeville acts as there were no acting roles for someone like her. She perfected her playwriting skills until she broke through with writing and starring in her own movies. Mae West had a unique, distinctive style. Her “style and content are so tightly joined that the comedy seems but a natural consequence of her remarkable bearing and physique … “ (p 81). She was popular with young women, becoming America’s leading actress-playwright.

“Sex was her subject, not her effect. And it was what she had to say about sex that was genuinely dangerous” (p 83). As much as the studios censored her scripts, she did what came naturally to her and the censored content still shined through. “Torpedoed content bubbled right back up in innuendo and undulation” (p 90). The young women of her audience were really into her message and her distinct style, propelling her success further after the movie, I’m No Angel (1933).

Mae West grabbed the “male gaze” by its gun, wrestled it to the ground, tamed it, and then turned it back on those who pointed it her direction. And she did it without even breaking a sweat! After learning about her, I”m fan. I love that swagger of hers. If I feel this way, I can just imagine how the young women of the 30s felt about her.

Mae West was consistent. She discovered what worked, cultivated her distinctive style and stuck with it.

“Nothing about Mae West ever changed. …. you found what worked and you stuck to it. A lot of it was believing her act, and a lot more of it was actually being her act” (p 95). Mae West’s success was a combination of her sexuality, her style, her strength, and her consistency.