Vendor Writing: Historical Fantasy

Historical Fantasy

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I don't know why the members of the Metro Historical Commission decided to award an historical marker to Bettie Page. I suppose it could have been as simple as Mr. Ben Wilkinson saying he wanted it and would pay to have it cast and placed.

But surely they would have done their due diligence to find out if the proposed text of the marker was accurate. Wouldn't they want to know if Bettie had done the things the text says she did or that she actually was the person it says she was?

"Page" had been a clue that stumped me in a crossword puzzle I had recently worked on. So I decided to find out who she was. Her story is intriguing.

When Bettie was at Hume- Fogg, there's no denying she was an over-achieving, driven, bright shining star. After she left Nashville for New York, she made her way as best she could. Unfortunately, Hume-Fogg's bright, shining student ended up having to sell her body for the sexual gratification of men.

I don't blame dear Bettie for that, of course. She did what she had to do to be able to eat and live indoors. And she leaned into her work with all the gusto she had applied to her studies. She was very good at what she did. But there were harsh consequence to the life she was lured into.

Women in post-war 1950s America had few opportunities for professional success. Secretary, nurse, teacher, and homemaker were pretty much all an educated woman could aspire to be. The pay was lousy and would not support a single woman comfortably in Nashville, let alone in New York. Bettie could make more in one day modeling for Irving Klaw than she made in a month at her secretarial jobs.

Bettie's most demure pin-up costumes, viewed today as acceptably camp, would have been considered tastelessly risque and scandalous in the 1950s. Imagine June Cleaver, Harriet Nelson, or Margaret Anderson in short-shorts and a halter top instead of a house dress and pearls.

Are we saying to the bright young women who will pass by this marker each day at Hume-Fogg that it doesn't matter how smart you are: work as hard as you want, you will only be appreciated and noteworthy in the world for how sexy you are — how much skin you are willing to show.

The text of this proposed marker, as short as it is, overflows with inaccurate euphemisms and mischaracterizations.

It refers to "retired from public life" and "maintained a reclusive lifestyle" as the time Bettie spent in insane asylums.

And Bettie turned to Jesus, not out of normal devotion, but as a torturous symptom of her mental illness. She went on a manic search for redemption for sins only she knew.

She brutally stabbed three people and held four others at knifepoint while experiencing religious delusions. I don't believe most evangelical Christians do that — though I could be wrong.

As a woman, I have nothing but empathy and love for dear Bettie Mae Page. But I don't believe even she would think this an acceptable idea. And I believe she would find the placement at Hume-Fogg totally inappropriate and reprehensible.

Estes Kefauver all but crucified Bettie at the altar of his presidential aspirations without giving her the respect to speak in her own defense. He manufactured evidence against her and streamed it into every home in America.

A better placement for this remembrance of beautiful Bettie Page would be to nestle it among the tulip bulbs and shrubbery across the street at the corner of the next block: the Estes Kefauver Federal Building. I think it would bring a smile to Bettie's face to know that her historical marker, accurate or not, will be a thorn in the side of Sen. Carey Estes Kefauver throughout eternity. Maybe then, she can truly rest in peace.