Style Icons: Female »Mae West

mae westHere I am a bit fazed by turning thirty and then I find out that Mae West was over forty in all her films! She was quite a woman. Known for her stand-out curvaceous figure when it wasn't necessarily in vogue (not much has changed there) and her often scandalous wit and her famous quotes like “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” and “A hard man is good to find” (which ended up decades later on my friend Dana's high school bedroom wall written above a topless stock hunk on a poster bought she bought at Spencer's).

I'm also so happy to report that she was a local Greenpoint gal who never forgot her roots and refused to drop her Brooklyn accent when she became famous. She was also strong willed in her convictions of equal rights, always giving credit to Black performers that inspired her and was early on an advocate for gay and transgender rights.

Once, when her own apartment building manager refused to allow her African American boyfriend inside, she bought the building. What a lady!


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Posted on February 11, 2008

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