"Ilusi Dipukulin": A Tribute To Bettie Page
One needn't know every detail of a celebrity's life in order for them to positively influence yours...
Approximately a month ago, when the indomitable Ms. Page entered the hospital, I meant to call my cousin that I simply call Chandra, although her name is Chandramathi (Tamil name meaning “one who has a face like the moon” expressing celestial beauty), and tell her. Getting connected to anyone by phone in Indonesia is difficult to be sure, but she moves so fluidly between the islands as a photographer, the undertaking becomes a lot like tracking down…me. When Chandra came to America to stay with us and finish school, the first thing my relatives here could think to do to her was fit her for braces. It is not enough you are new to THE COUNTRY and speak English with difficulty, adding metal to your mouth will definitely assure your status as outcast! She adopted a pensive, closed-mouth smile that made her sadly pretty to most who did not know her; being the goofy cousin I am, I would cause full, brace-shining smiles to erupt on her face. She was always beautiful to me. With her dark, luxe hair, light grey eyes, and tawny skin, she was unique enough that she did not blend in with my mother’s other relatives- like me. We were tomboys; late bloomers with slim athletic builds. And we both longed to be more feminine…
We are both October babies and send posters as birthday gifts. I received a beautifully framed Vargas girl print of a redhead in a gilded swimsuit; she received a lovely Bettie Page on the beach in a black and white bikini. The first year we decided these gifts were adequate and pleasing, I was sent a Rita Hayworth as Gilda movie poster; this lovely item now resides at my mother’s home in Florida- thank God! (remember the purging flames?) Her poster, because she’d just returned to Indonesia after years in America and was complaining of the ruralness of Sumatra, was a Bettie Page ‘jungle girl’ poster in which Bettie is wearing a knife on her hip and seated on driftwood. I paid a guy to add in purple lettering “Careful- it’s a jungle out there! Love, M.~” to the bottom of the poster. “Thanks for the poster” her e-card read, “And thank you for the memories.” During that awkward time, when we occasionally sat in the window, seemingly melancholy (waiting for the breasts fairy as Bill Cosby has speculated), watching girls our age in summer outfits possessing the curves we feigned to shun, we both made separate wishes.
Bettie Page with her petite and curvaceous frame (women under 5’6” ALWAYS seem to have an abundance of curves…it is the unfair advantage of having everything fitted on a smaller model), light eyes and dark hair was the perfect recipient of Chandra’s womanhood wonder. My male friends with their awe at our curiosity would secret us away in their rooms for hours as we positively critiqued Ms. Page’s pictorials. Did our wishes come true? I believe Chandra’s did! She is an exotic, smirking version of Bettie Page that does not take herself too seriously. When men trip over objects and stare too intently, she is known to whisper to a knowing relative “ilusi dipukulin”. This phrase, loosely translated, connotes being foiled by an illusion. After Bettie Page converted to Christianity, became a missionary and began fighting the good fight against schizophrenia, there was a ‘revival’ of her images in the eighties and early nineties. Most of these people had no clue what her life was like; my cousin and me included. We too were ‘foiled by an illusion’.
Upon calling Chandra today, I asked if she’d heard the news of Ms. Page’s death. “No” she answered solemnly, “But I was not close to her…just her image.” And with that straight-forward answer, Chandra and I began talking about our family.
Bettie Page had the heart of a caregiver and humanitarian long before her conversion to Christianity at that church in the Keys. She loved the people of the island nation of Haiti and chose to help them before it became popular to help a nation that could not indirectly give you good PR. May God bless her soul.
Approximately a month ago, when the indomitable Ms. Page entered the hospital, I meant to call my cousin that I simply call Chandra, although her name is Chandramathi (Tamil name meaning “one who has a face like the moon” expressing celestial beauty), and tell her. Getting connected to anyone by phone in Indonesia is difficult to be sure, but she moves so fluidly between the islands as a photographer, the undertaking becomes a lot like tracking down…me. When Chandra came to America to stay with us and finish school, the first thing my relatives here could think to do to her was fit her for braces. It is not enough you are new to THE COUNTRY and speak English with difficulty, adding metal to your mouth will definitely assure your status as outcast! She adopted a pensive, closed-mouth smile that made her sadly pretty to most who did not know her; being the goofy cousin I am, I would cause full, brace-shining smiles to erupt on her face. She was always beautiful to me. With her dark, luxe hair, light grey eyes, and tawny skin, she was unique enough that she did not blend in with my mother’s other relatives- like me. We were tomboys; late bloomers with slim athletic builds. And we both longed to be more feminine…
We are both October babies and send posters as birthday gifts. I received a beautifully framed Vargas girl print of a redhead in a gilded swimsuit; she received a lovely Bettie Page on the beach in a black and white bikini. The first year we decided these gifts were adequate and pleasing, I was sent a Rita Hayworth as Gilda movie poster; this lovely item now resides at my mother’s home in Florida- thank God! (remember the purging flames?) Her poster, because she’d just returned to Indonesia after years in America and was complaining of the ruralness of Sumatra, was a Bettie Page ‘jungle girl’ poster in which Bettie is wearing a knife on her hip and seated on driftwood. I paid a guy to add in purple lettering “Careful- it’s a jungle out there! Love, M.~” to the bottom of the poster. “Thanks for the poster” her e-card read, “And thank you for the memories.” During that awkward time, when we occasionally sat in the window, seemingly melancholy (waiting for the breasts fairy as Bill Cosby has speculated), watching girls our age in summer outfits possessing the curves we feigned to shun, we both made separate wishes.
Bettie Page with her petite and curvaceous frame (women under 5’6” ALWAYS seem to have an abundance of curves…it is the unfair advantage of having everything fitted on a smaller model), light eyes and dark hair was the perfect recipient of Chandra’s womanhood wonder. My male friends with their awe at our curiosity would secret us away in their rooms for hours as we positively critiqued Ms. Page’s pictorials. Did our wishes come true? I believe Chandra’s did! She is an exotic, smirking version of Bettie Page that does not take herself too seriously. When men trip over objects and stare too intently, she is known to whisper to a knowing relative “ilusi dipukulin”. This phrase, loosely translated, connotes being foiled by an illusion. After Bettie Page converted to Christianity, became a missionary and began fighting the good fight against schizophrenia, there was a ‘revival’ of her images in the eighties and early nineties. Most of these people had no clue what her life was like; my cousin and me included. We too were ‘foiled by an illusion’.
Upon calling Chandra today, I asked if she’d heard the news of Ms. Page’s death. “No” she answered solemnly, “But I was not close to her…just her image.” And with that straight-forward answer, Chandra and I began talking about our family.
Bettie Page had the heart of a caregiver and humanitarian long before her conversion to Christianity at that church in the Keys. She loved the people of the island nation of Haiti and chose to help them before it became popular to help a nation that could not indirectly give you good PR. May God bless her soul.
posted by ScreenGoddessComplex at 1:17 PM
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