Images available at BettiePage.com.
Dear Friend and Reader,
If you ever saw a picture of a woman with a beautiful body, a girl-next-door smile and a ball-gag in her mouth, then you were probably looking at Bettie Page. Though the princess of the pin-ups, the seductress of sadomasochism, faded from view decades ago I could always smile to myself, knowing she was out there, somewhere. I’m sad to report that she’s left our world for the next one; Bettie died in an LA hospital on Thursday. She was 85.
She had a kind of solidity and grace that Taurus imparts, as well as the approachability and woman-ness of Cancer. One thing that drew everyone’s attention to Bettie was her desire to be free: every photograph of her smile seems to radiate with a liberation unheard-of for those times. I mean, she made spanking wholesome and sex for pleasure playful. She was the spark that touched off the sexual revolution of the 60s and gave us an example of a woman who enjoyed being gorgeous.
She also had a depth to her that one could see even at a glance. A strong placement of Neptune, right below her Ascendant, helped to create a character that dripped in the ropes that bound her in some of her most famous photographs. She was aware of the realm of fantasy which she rollicked in and was unafraid to experiment, explore and create. She made all of her own costumes and as she got older she began to delve into a lifelong passion that many of her fans were unaware of: Bettie was a Baptist, and served as a missionary for some time. No matter what, she continued to be her own person, regardless of what other people might have thought about her, including the church.