Mae West:More Than A Sex Symbol

Born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn to Matilda and John West as Mary Jane, but was almost always called Mae. She detested her father and adored her mother who taught her about men and how to make it in a man’s world. With her mother’s love of the theatre Mae began her acting career at the age of seven and eventually played vaudeville in 1912. During her time in the cheap theatres and vaudeville, Mae honed her writing skills and learned what the audience wanted to see. In 1926 her first play, Sex, opened in New Y

Again in The Drag she attacks men and blames them for the way society is shaped. She addresses homosexuality as an illness that should be handled with sympathy instead of a crime. The play hit such a core in society that the play was raided on the second night, Mae was arrested, and soon after New York Legislature passed a law refusing the depiction of homosexuality onstage. But later Mae wrote a play closely related to The Drag called The Pleasure Man in which the main character, Don Juan, a upstanding man of middle class is castrated by the brother of the woman he has ruined. Mae tried to emphasize that the woman would no longer be accepted by society but Don retained the same reputation. More closely related to The Drag, The Pleasure Man was written to show Vaudeville offstage and behind the scenes. Like many of West’s previous plays she exemplifies the underground world of homosexuality through much of Mae’s on perspective in the Vaudeville circuit. It features the Bird of Paradise with his four homosexual colleagues. They acted as homosexuals, taking on names such as Bunny and Peaches, and referring to themselves as girls. While it brought homosexuality into the limelight again, it also caused retribution from the middle class. The Pleasure Man was raided just as The Drag was and Mae was arrested for the second time for risking social morality. During the 1920’s, drag had been a legit form of entertainment until West linked it to homosexuality through The Drag and The Pleasure Man. West made up for destroying drag by becoming a gay icon. Mae was later accused of being a female impersonator because of the way she dressed in most of her movies wearing long flowing gowns adorned with heaps of jewelry. The wardrobe was supposed to imitate the way drag queens dress. This was the beginning of Gay Camp and Feminist Camp, which is gender parody. In an interview with Playboy West was asked what Camp was, “Camp is the kinda comedy where they imitate me.” West’s most influential and renewed her image as a gay icon came with her last two movies, Myra Breckinridge and Sextette filmed in the 1970’s. Myra Breckinridge is about a man who goes to England for a sex change and comes back as Myra. The movie established Mae West as a permanent gay icon for the male homosexual society.

“Mae West does everything but build the sets for her Paramount productions. She writes her stories, offers directional suggestions, has her hand in costume designing, and knows her music. “

Mae wrote most of her own material and because of that she was able to address the issues she found relevant of her time. Mae stared in all of her plays with the exception of The Drag and Pleasure Man and wrote her own lines in the movies she starred in for Paramount. This gave West the ability to depict the type of woman she wanted to play and has been accused numerous times as having played herself. Mae West’s style of acting helped to emphasize sex in the way she walked and talked. Ironically five of the nine films were based in the 1890’s and West’s wardrobe dictated she wear long flowing gowns where the only skin shown at most was the shoulders and head. West gave us such memorable lines as “Is hat a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me.” Because of such highly sexed lines, it caught the attention of the middle class who called for censorship. Unfortunately, with greater demand for West to be censored, Paramount pictures censored her movies increasingly more. Eventually pushing her from the movie business because of her censors. The fact that Mae was censored so greatly proves that she was beginning to have an effect on her audience. Many times when people watch movies and theatre they learn lessons and are awakened to truths and therefore want to take on the characteristics of the hero or heroine. This is what the Catholic Church believed was happening and pushed Paramount the hardest for censorship. Luckily, Mae wa

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