Too Much Of A Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon [Paperback]

Ramona Curry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1996

Mae West ("Too much of a good thing can be wonderful") continues to reverberate through American popular culture. Here Curry examines the interplay between West's bawdy, worldly persona & 20th-century gender & media politics. In the 1930s, she was a lightning rod for debates over morality & censorship. In the 1970s, the complexity of her portrayal of gender made her a controversial figure for both the gay rights & feminist movements. This book analyzes the symbolic roles that West has occupied, arguing that West represents a carefully orchestrated transgression of race, class, & gender expectation. Also illustrates how icons of pop culture often distill contested social issues, serving diverse & even contradictory political functions.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This work explores the shifting figurations of the image of Mae West in 20th-century popular culture. Though there is some exploration of West's career, Curry (English, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana) is primarily interested in West as a symbol. During the 1930s, West represented transgressive sex crossing racial and gender lines. This made her an emblem during the battle for film and radio censorship midway in the decade and ostensibly led to her decline. By the Seventies, West's career had been revived, and she had two entirely different images: she had become a camp female impersonator to the gay community and a markedly negative image for women among the new feminist critics. Even as her performance moved from the earlier social satire to self-parody, she had again become a figure of controversy. The Nineties have brought new appreciation for Mae West's comic style as a parody of social dictates and gender conventions. Amid this analysis of West's iconography, Curry offers the interesting and well-presented thesis that Paramount let West go in 1936 not because the new Production Code made her ribald films impossible but because the major film producers realized that cooperating with the Production Code was an excellent means of ensuring that production stayed in their hands. Recommended for academic collections on film and popular culture.?Marianne Cawley, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (February 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816627916
• ISBN-13: 978-0816627912
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,065,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Feminist Take On Mae West, November 24, 2006

By 

R. M. Desjardins "R. Mark Desjardins" (Vancouver, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Much Of A Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon (Paperback)

Ramona Curry's "Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon," published in 1996, is a university press publication that examines Mae West's contributions to the Feminist Movement and evaluates her role as a female icon of the twentieth century. This treatment of West is a typical academic text with good research of textual sources, but with little or no interviews and featuring theory that is hit or miss.
When Mae West was asked why she never wrote an article supporting the Feminist Movement she reportably drawled, "They never asked me."

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious silly book on a legend, August 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Too Much Of A Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon (Paperback)

This is a fairly ridiculous, heavy handed attempt at analyzing the appeal of one of the greatest movie stars ever. This writer sees everything about Mae as "camp" (wait til you read her detailed analysis of La West's appearance on MISTER ED!!) and although she seems pro-West, apparently sees her mainly as someone who gays to copy and idolize, not as a serious pop culture icon for the mainstream public. Super silly and very heavy handed. Beulah, peel me a raspberry!!!