A Girl's Best Freind

I've just finished watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Its the movie with the iconic Marilyn Monroe number "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend". Norma Jean did her best booty shake and breathy man-flattering but the real star was Jane Russel. Now that was a woman who could turn heads. While Marilyn turned her attention to any man who could give her a little hard currency, the equally curvy Jane made 'em work for it. A fella had to have more than half a brain to keep up with her and enough nerve to prove it. This was a woman who had the entire men's Olympic team doing a special workout for her benefit. You go, Jane!

Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

Where the hell are these women now? Jane had brains and a body. Not some stick figure figure, either. She had hips and breasts and a teeny waist (helped, I'm sure, by a good foundation garment). Quick wits and a hot bod, she's my new heroine. These days we're all supposed to be thin as rails with big boobs and a flat tummy without the aid of a girdle. Thank god for Jennifer Lopez's ass. Of course we can't all have a personal trainer to work out with 2+ hours a day. We have things like jobs and budgets the preclude that sort of thing.

There's been talk about the affect Michelle Obama will have on feminism. Michelle is fabulous: brilliant, gorgeous, and utterly devoted to her family. An article on slate says that she embodies the ideas of feminism so well that she surpasses them. She's another heroine of mine. Jane should have had an effect on feminism too. She showed that a woman could be beautiful and smarter than everyone else in the room.