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Bettie Page and the Early Years of Fetish Photography; Is that Bondage Real or Memorex?
By Sensuous Sadie
SensuousSadie@aol.com 
www.sensuoussadie.com 



I recently watched a video called Jenna Loves Pain featuring well-known porn star Jenna Jameson. On the downside, most of this so-called kinky video felt completely inauthentic in that the BDSM was clearly "acted" with no sweat, no creativity and little variety. Jenna Jameson may be one hot mama when it comes to vanilla sex, but her acting didn't quite cut it in the kinky world. Fortunately, there was one spectacularly good scene which featured another famous erotic film star Nina Hartley, who just happens to be the wife of the Director Ernest Greene. It also turns out that Nina and Ernest happen to be involved in the BDSM community, which explains why that particular scene looked and felt authentic, not to mention that it got me off big time. Jenna was in this scene, and it was the only scene where she seemed genuinely turned on. Oddly enough, I also didn't realize it was her in the scene until mid-way through because she wasn't wearing the heavy makeup and highly teased hair that had been featured in the other vignettes. The reason that the scene with Nina felt real was because it was real. Vanilla people who rent this DVD on a lark probably can't tell that the rest of it was staged, and they probably don't care either. But those of us in the scene can tell and we also care. Imitation BDSM is about as satisfying as imitation margarine.

Many of us kinksters are also big fans of Bettie Page, the first and still the most famous bondage model. You can see her in the recent movie The Notorious Bettie Page, which is a wonderful depiction of her life and of the mores of the 1950's. During that time she worked for photographer publisher Irving Klaw, who published kinky photos (initially) as a sideline to his movie star photo & film business. At the time, both the fetish lifestyle and photos of it were almost unheard of in mainstream America, and because of the Kefauver Hearings (The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, chaired by Senator Carey Estes Kefauver), the Klaws eventually had to cease and desist their business due to persecution by law enforcement agencies in the prevailing moral climate. This kind of photography was considered, at the time, to cause adolescents to become suicidal, mentally ill, juvenile delinquents, or all three.

What's important about these photos of Bettie is that she was in fact not into actual BDSM in any way. Bettie was a paid model, and a very good one. No matter how genuinely dominant or submissive you think she may appear, she isn't actually either of those things. She's dressed in costumes and using props, and even admitted at the time that she was completely aware of this wee bit of acting. You could say that Bettie Page is the imitation margarine of BDSM. But here's the thing. I really like Bettie's photographic work anyway and here's why. At a time in our history when sexuality was strongly repressed, Bettie celebrated her body. She recognized that her gift at modeling was a God-given one, and as a Christian she felt that it therefore was a good thing to share. She understood that posing in these kinds of photographs gave people pleasure and didn't hurt anyone, and so it was a reasonable way to earn money. In other words, Bettie Page was ahead of her time, particularly for a woman from a southern Christian background.

The question is then, does it really matter if Bettie really was into BDSM or not? Well, it's kind of a hard thing to get a hold on. I appreciate and enjoy her work from an artistic standpoint because she really is a hottie, and her gift for speaking to the camera is undeniable. As a collector of bondage books and ephemera from the 1950's and 1960's, I also appreciate the value of the Bettie Page in Bondage series of seven booklets, which now can be had for a mere $2,250.00 on Bookfinder.com. But as a BDSM community member, I also want to preserve the integrity and the provenance of our history, and Bettie Page simply does not belong in that except to the extent that her pictures were sold to members of our community. You can also see short films of her and other models from the period doing BDSM Lite and it is patently clear that the whole thing is just a big frolicsome hoot. As a collector of material from this period, I admit that there isn't a whole lot to work with, and I may be too much of a purist for anyone's taste, but if we are going to elevate artwork up to the status that Bettie's work has become, let us keep in mind that to her, it wasn't what we do – just a bunch of fun costumes and props. I say let's enjoy what Bettie has to give us, but let's also keep our eye on the integrity and validity of our shared community history. When it comes to that, I'll take real butter every time.


 

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The Notorious Bettie Page From www.netflix.com: Although she longed to be an actress, an unassuming girl from Nashville, Tenn., would ultimately become the nation's first bona fide bondage queen. Provocative filmmaker Mary Harron delivers an intimate biopic about 1950s pinup girl Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol), who whetted many a male appetite with her raven locks and sadomasochistic poses before becoming the target of a U.S. Senate investigation and converting to Christianity. Note from Sadie: I thoroughly enjoyed this film! A great story both about Bettie as well as about the history of sexuality and BDSM in the 1950's.   Bettie Page Bondage Queen – *Bettie's Actual Bondage Films Irving Klaw began selling pin-up photos in the 1950s, many of which featured the legendary Bettie Page. When he began to receive requests from his customers for images of girls in what would today be considered S & M and bondage situations, he complied. Making 16mm films out of his own home featuring Bettie and other glamour girls of the era, Klaw created an oeuvre which today's fetish material continues to reference. Much of this work was burned when Klaw was accused of purveying pornography, and the films collected here are rarities not previously available. Surreal and strangely innocent, the films and photos are obviously staged in someone's basement, while the fetishwear--not widely attainable in those days--was mostly homemade, lending the work an immediacy and tender intimacy not to be found in similar, more contemporary, films. *This is available on Amazon.com although you can probably find it cheaper on eBay http://www.amazon.com/Bettie-Page-Bondage-Queen/dp/B0007989LG

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Sensuous Sadie is the author of It's Not About the Whip: Love, Sex, and Spirituality in the BDSM Scene. Read an excerpt at http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-0551.html. She is the founder and leader (1999 - 2001) of Rose & Thorn, Vermont's first BDSM group. Comments, compliments and complaints, as well as requests for reprinting can be addressed to her at SensuousSadie@aol.com or visit her website at www.sensuoussadie.com. Sadie believes the universe is abundant, and that sharing information freely is part of this abundance, so she allows reprints of her writing in most venues.

Copyright 2006 Sadie Sez Publications