June 6, 2012
The vamp’s tendency to posture and her inclination to wear distinctive, vivid makeup combine to render her an excessively produced body. In some sense, she threatens to be out of bounds at any moment, and her body seems always to be in danger of showing. Her laboring efforts help her carry off a kind of masquerade—a false femininity whose veneer is continually slipping. The vamp’s meaning is also strongly articulated by means of costume. Heavily sexualized, her clothing tends to be dark in color or to feature aggressive prints and stripes that serve to mark her sartorial threat. The vamp draws attention to her labors through her costume, and so represents a sharp break with the patriarchal requirement that women’s labor be invisible. Since we are culturally committed to effacing the female laboring body, part of the threat of the vamp is that she presents herself as the evolving site of her own laboring efforts. - Diane Negra, “Immigrant Stardom in Imperial America: Pola Negri and the Problem of Typology,” from A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema Everything I’ve read so far from this anthology has been fantastic, but this article made me especially excited, for obvious reasons. (So excited that I’m actually posting on Tumblr again, whoa!) Pictured: vamp queen Theda Bara.

The vamp’s tendency to posture and her inclination to wear distinctive, vivid makeup combine to render her an excessively produced body. In some sense, she threatens to be out of bounds at any moment, and her body seems always to be in danger of showing. Her laboring efforts help her carry off a kind of masquerade—a false femininity whose veneer is continually slipping. The vamp’s meaning is also strongly articulated by means of costume. Heavily sexualized, her clothing tends to be dark in color or to feature aggressive prints and stripes that serve to mark her sartorial threat. The vamp draws attention to her labors through her costume, and so represents a sharp break with the patriarchal requirement that women’s labor be invisible. Since we are culturally committed to effacing the female laboring body, part of the threat of the vamp is that she presents herself as the evolving site of her own laboring efforts.

- Diane Negra, “Immigrant Stardom in Imperial America: Pola Negri and the Problem of Typology,” from A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema

Everything I’ve read so far from this anthology has been fantastic, but this article made me especially excited, for obvious reasons. (So excited that I’m actually posting on Tumblr again, whoa!)

Pictured: vamp queen Theda Bara.

11:05am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLkSrxMslZzf
(Notes: 255)
  
Filed under: vamp feminist makeupping theda bara pola negri 
  1. ozamataz-buckshank reblogged this from jungfrukallan
  2. lullabe reblogged this from loveinexcess
  3. dazedreflection reblogged this from mysparrowheart
  4. bagofshitspo reblogged this from loveinexcess
  5. janeavrils reblogged this from makingandunmakingselves
  6. pearlaabsinthe reblogged this from theloudestvoice
  7. throughtheinvisible reblogged this from smallestmouse
  8. twinkleberrybabybushkin reblogged this from gypsypurpleloves
  9. ordo-amoris reblogged this from girlinlondon
  10. east-side-story reblogged this from pickurselfup
  11. beautifulepoch reblogged this from pickurselfup
  12. pickurselfup reblogged this from theloudestvoice
  13. colormemacy reblogged this from shady-aces
  14. shady-aces reblogged this from s3xm3plz and added:
    (via imgTumble)
  15. huund reblogged this from lecieldeparis
  16. xbritrain reblogged this from girlinlondon
  17. ratfantasy reblogged this from loveinexcess
  18. anxious-malconcats reblogged this from girlinlondon
  19. lookingfordorothea reblogged this from girlinlondon
  20. baptiste-radufes reblogged this from girlinlondon
  21. mysparrowheart reblogged this from girlinlondon
  22. moonlight-serenades reblogged this from girlinlondon
  23. n1c0l1n4-b3a reblogged this from girlinlondon and added:
    The vamp’s tendency to posture and her inclination to wear distinctive, vivid makeup combine to render her an...
  24. stairway0fdeath reblogged this from girlinlondon
  25. lecieldeparis reblogged this from girlinlondon
  26. onemoremoondance reblogged this from girlinlondon
  27. toseeyourstarshine reblogged this from girlinlondon