Bye-Bye Bettie

An accidental pioneer of the sexual revolution died in Los Angeles on Thursday. Bettie Page, the model and "Notorious" subject of a recent film biography, died at 85 after being hospitalized for a heart attack.

When we think of the Fifties in America, we often think of Father Knows Best, Joseph McCarthy, and a tendency towards conformity. Bettie Page was certainly marching to a different drummer as she progress from modeling bikinis and see-through lingerie to posing for sadomasochistic photos complete with high heels and a whip.

Bettie Page seemed to keep her fame (or infamy) in perspective. She once said that she became a model because it seemed like an easier way to make a living than pounding away at a typewriter. She felt that God approved of nudity, since Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden. She thought the S&M photos were silly. She didn't understand why Senator Estes Kefauver was outraged enough to target her in his congressional inquiry into pornography. When she quit modeling, it was because she was 34 and her days as the girl with the perfect figure were over.

By all accounts, Bettie Page's personal life was tumultuous. In 1959, she became a born-again Christian and attended Bible school. She wanted to become a missionary but was turned down -- not because she was a notorious pin-up model, but because she was divorced. She wound up working for the Billy Graham ministry. A move to California led to several stays in mental institutions and relative obscurity until the 1990s, when Bettie Page became discovered by a new generation.

In some ways, the passing of Bettie Page is a signpost pointing towards the end of an era. In a world of easily accessible pornography and the sexualization of damn near everything, it is hard to believe that a pinup model wearing high heels and holding a whip was once enough to inspire a congressional inquiry.