Of Corset
Eventhough it's not mandatory to use our teeth to open the press kit for "Call Me, The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss," we'd be compelled to. Eventhough we think we're smarter than to be seduced into interest in a USA movie based on a true story whose newspaper narrative was racier than anything basic cable is gonna present circa 2004 A.T.N. (After The Nipple, not safe for the FCC -- chair's rant in PDF & the regs) -- wholly removing the likelihood of the true quality sleaze that would make us want to watch, yet we'd be compelled to. That it's just ribbon laced through eyelets of printed brocadey, tone-on-tone card stock shouldn't cause a slight -- eventhough involuntary-- intake of breath, yet we're compelled to.
Such is the power of iconography, of metaphor, of context-- it's a press kit whose design wouldn't change much if Fleiss had been a basketball player and those were shoelaces, not back laces, even with title's typefont treated as if channel-set with diamonds, telling us she's no cheap whore. High-priced all the way. Bling bling.
Through analysis of period writings, these two eye the darker notions of corset symbolism:
"The shape of the corset -- essentially that of the female torso -- is not an obvious phallic symbol, yet it transforms the soft and pliant torso into something hard and rigid."And text also debunks some myths:
"I have devoted so much attention to bizarre accounts of tight-lacing not because I think there existed many actual fetishists (quite the reverse), but in order to demonstrate how these letters cannot be accepted at face value (as they have been)."
Societal upheaval can be told by the concurrent unfetterring of waists. A how-to fetter, which was hip about 1600 B.C.E. Corset symbolism is used to artistic affect and commercial advantage (go figure, same guy designed this); historical photos and samples from movies abound.
Interesting enough herself, Fleiss is a retailer, author, crime victim and an opinionaire:
"-- when I got out of prison, I saw on ABC, on TV, how to meet and marry a millionaire -- and I thought, 'I went to jail for that.' I cornered the market in basically what was a boy's club -- they didn't like that -- and I paid a heavy price for it.""There's no benefit to being famous."
"... hindsight is 20/20. It was very difficult for me to file those charges. Because of my past, I knew it wasn't an even playing field, and when it was over the DA got the conviction, they gave a grand speech that they would prosecute domestic violence at all levels, for rich or poor. But that's not true. I had to fight every step of the way for them to prosecute. And at the end, everyone came out with a victory speech, including Mr. Sizemore -- he gave a speech as if he won an Academy Award -- everyone gave a speech except for me."
Fleiss also sells corsets and handmade ceramics: see her mug shots.
Mar 26, 2004 at 05:19 PM by James Hames in Television | Permalink
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