From AIDS-era Queer Icon to Sanitized Nostalgic Property: The Cultural Histories of Bettie Page Merchandise Circulation

Author(s): Freibert, Finley | Abstract: The merchandising of Bettie Page since the mid-20th century has evinced her diverse cultural associations at a variety of historical moments. Yet from a contemporary standpoint, the historical narratives prompted in the licensing of her name and image flatten her past into a palatable emblem of 1950s pin-up culture. In this article, I interrogate the ways Page’s image has been mobilized since the 1950s. I propose a cultural biography of Bettie Page attuned to her queer communitarian circulation in order to counter the nostalgic sanitation of her image since the 1990s.