The Fixties and Sixties: A Womans Place?

The fifties saw a focus on the breasts - the apotheosis of erogenous. The foam bra appeared. Whole careers were built on breasts. Jayne Mansfield's were insured for $1 million dollars!!! It was a decade for competition for titillation. (Ironically 10yrs later, breasts would disappear).
Alas, it was true, gentlemen did prefer blondes - 3 out of 10 women dyed their hair blonde. The typical fifties celebrity phenomenon was contrived out of sex appeal. Publicity became more explicit than film. This is perhaps when the hollywood celebrity outside of film began. Through the printed picture. The 1950s was all about the sex symbol. The two most archetypal sex symbols of the time - Marilyn Munroe (America) and Brigitte Bardot (France). They both embodied an intense, child whorish eroticism, whilst still retaining a sense of innocence at the heart of it. They were representations of Dr Kinseys findings, enjoying and relishing healthy sexual appetites. They were in control; they treated men as playthings; their deepest emotions were narcissist. Munroe made a virtue of her acting limitations by being amusing. She had caressable curves, wondering eyes and a hushed baby voice. On the other hand, Bardot had the look of chaste girlhood. Her sensuality was not femme fatale but enfant fatale. She was a nymphet. Audiences were convinced she was virtually naked. She was not submissive but she was not a whore. Her movies proved love could be filmed erotically but not pornographically.