At the recent American Music Awards (AMA) nominations press conference in Los Angeles, Christina Aguilera celebrated her full-figure yet again by flashing buxom blonde curves in a form-fitting purple dress and silver platform shoes. Needless to say, the look has raised many eyebrows.
Recent photos posted by the UK’s Daily Mail showed “The Voice” judge and pop icon standing proud and confident, as if she was channeling her inner goddess. In a series of poses showing Aguilera from many different angles, the proud star beamed a new confidence very reminiscent of famed silver screen legend Mae West, almost as if she was channeling the film legend herself.
Is this the beginning of a new movement? With folks like Aguilera and Christina Hendricks speaking out against the “full figure” label recently, perhaps it’s time to look back on Hollywood’s original bombshell.
Like Aguilera (who was born in Staten Island), the Brooklyn-born Mae West was a multi-level star, as a singer, actress, and dancer, and was also not shy about showing off her buxom body and sexual prowess. In the early 1900’s, screen actresses like West, and Jean Harlow made the “buxom blonde” look famous, and appealing to both men (who wanted them) and women (who wanted to be like them). Crowds would line up around the corner to see the platinum blondes show off their electrifying curves on the big screen.
West (1893-1980) was so controversial in her day that here curves and razor-sharp double-entendres often encountered censorship. She released classics like “Klondike Annie” and “My Little Chicakadee,” with WC Fields, probably the role that has aged best and remains her most visible on-screen achievement. In 1933, she asked Cary Grant to “Come up and see me sometime,” pushing that era’s sexual boundaries in a way Aguilera would perfected decades later in Dirrty leather chaps.
Women like West and Harlow set the path for many highly-desired women to follow, but as time passed “blonde” remained but “buxom” began to fade and Hollywood’s obsession with “thin” evolved. Many women have tried to banish the unrealistic celebrity expectations to be model-thin, but most have failed.
Christina Aguilera is among the many iconic figures who’s up-and-down weight gain have been the topic of gossip discussion, but in these recent photos a newfound inner confidence seems to have emerged. And as Mae West herself once said: “Cultivate your curves – they may be dangerous, but they won’t be avoided.”