Many sexual icons have come and gone, but few of them could leave the impact Bettie Page had in her three years as a pinup and bondage model. She was the queen of power dynamic fetishes, which is why she was the first choice of every man interested in BDSM pornography.
Hence, making a movie to portray her life onscreen and bringing it to people seemed the correct option, and director Mary Harron took it upon herself to do it and released a movie about Bettie Page’s life in 2005. The movie was “The Notorious Bettie Page.”
Movie Description
The Notorious Bettie Page surrounds Bettie’s life from when she was a kid until she left her modeling career to return to Christianity and be a preacher of God. The movie doesn’t tell us the whole story of Bettie as it doesn’t go into her later years of life, where we can see her committing crimes and being admitted into mental hospitals.
The movie mainly revolves around her earlier life in Nashville, her pinup and bondage modeling career, and her life surrounding God, but we do get to see a chunk of scenes from a governmental hearing with senators in the movie. The governmental hearing discusses the issue of BDSM porn roaming around in society. The director puts the governmental hearing scenes in the film to showcase the mindset of the people in the 50s towards BDSM and how Bettie’s bondage modeling provided a route to the society to get out of that mindset and start accepting BDSM as a normal part of society.
Now that you have an overview of the notorious Bettie Page, let’s talk about Bettie’s portrayal as a bondage model and the scenes that led her to be a BDSM queen.
Bettie Page Getting Gang Raped
Getting gang raped was the pivotal point in Bettie’s life in Nashville that made her decide she wanted to go to New York and be an actress and later a model. That rape was the turning point in her mindset about her body as it made her realize, even after such a horrible encounter, the gift she had and how she could use it.
The movie doesn’t show us the rape scene, but it does explain why Bettie doesn’t hesitate to do kinky poses when she first starts her modeling career.
Bettie Page as a Bondage and BDSM Model
In the movie, Bettie starts as a nude model but slowly gets into the world of BDSM, which leads her to real fame. We can’t learn much about BDSM from this movie as the movie centers around Bettie’s character, unlike other films, such as Fifty Shades of Grey, which actually introduce people more to the BDSM lifestyle. More about this movie and how it portrays BDSM, you will find in our article here.
Moreover, Bettie’s BDSM photoshoots mainly come in the category of bondage, dominance, and submission. The movie shows dominance in part of her photoshoots by making her wield whips and chains, which gives her a punisher persona, and we later see the impact of her dominant photoshoots when a guy begs her to punish him when he meets her in public.
On the other hand, we can see her with a gagged ball in her mouth, tied up to the wall, in a real submissive role. But the submission and bondage scenes aren’t as convincing during those scenes; instead of focusing on how Bettie feels about her experience of getting gagged, the characters are talking about something else entirely.
It doesn’t feel like an act of BDSM is taking place, as no character around her focuses on if she is feeling any pain while being chained to the wall or if she has a problem breathing. It simply seems like a girl is forced to wear a leather corset and is chained to a wall, and she seems to be getting bored by it.
Now that you know that there are many flaws in the movie regarding BDSM, let’s talk about what the BDSM community thinks about this movie.
What does BDSM Community Think about The Notorious Bettie Page?
There is actually a divide in the BDSM community regarding the notorious Bettie Page. Some think the purpose of the BDSM in the movie was to aware people of BDSM and showcase the mindset of society towards BDSM in the 50s. On the other hand, some think its purpose was to educate the viewer regarding BDSM by demonstrating it in the movie scenes.
The part of the community that thought the movie was trying to make the public aware of BDSM was satisfied because the film tried its best to present the norms of society at that time, issues with BDSM, and the lack of BDSM models in the 50s.
However, the other half of the community who watched it to learn about BDSM came out dissatisfied. The reason for dissatisfaction was that the BDSM scenes seemed fake and didn’t do justice to the actual portrayal of BDSM.
Is BDSM Realistic in the Notorious Bettie Page?
BDSM is a sexual act of pleasure through fetishes and pain which takes place after two people agree to it, but in the movie, the BDSM scenes aren’t focusing on the second person. The scenes mainly focus on Bettie and ignore the second person, and that’s why you aren’t able to get that sensual feel when you actually see two people in the act of BDSM. Additionally, it also seems very obvious that Bettie Page is acting in the BDSM photoshoots instead of being in the moment and actually enjoying it.
Even in the scenes where you are supposed to get a glimpse of BDSM, they make it look fake and focus more on the photography, Page’s interaction with her photographers, and Page’s perception of her surroundings and her life. The movie doesn’t dive deep into BDSM; the scenes of BDSM are just there to show that bondage modeling was a part of Bettie’s life.
Is It Worth to Watch It?
Honestly, I didn’t like the notorious Bettie Page too much. The movie mainly focuses on how much fun Bettie used to have as a pinup and bondage model, her interaction with her photographers, and her relationship with God. But, in all three categories, Mary Harron created a mess by fast pacing the movie from scene to scene.
Still, in the end, I know you are looking for the answer. Can you watch the notorious Bettie Page for BDSM? The notorious Bettie Page isn’t a movie you should watch if you want to learn more about BDSM or experience it. It does have BDSM scenes, but they don’t really teach you anything about BDSM. They are just there to sexualize Bettie Page and continue her story as a model.
Final Thoughts
While watching the movie, you can’t understand what led Bettie to have a state of mind in which she was ready to take her clothes off and be a sex slave in photoshoots. Her sexual abuse scene from her father and husband seemed entirely out of context. I mean, if you didn’t know she was assaulted before watching the movie, you wouldn’t have understood what was going on in those scenes.
However, the movie does one good thing regarding BDSM; it integrates Bettie’s BDSM persona into her life story. Bettie goes from being in submission to men throughout her life to being the girl who dominates every man in the world. This is the reason why she seems more confident in the BDSM scenes where the action is dominant.
Lastly, you can also watch this movie if you want to know how the BDSM industry used to work in the 50s, the Government’s perception of BDSM, Bettie’s life, and Bettie’s relationship with God. Thus, it does a much better job describing the perception of BDSM during that time than introducing BDSM in general.
Interested? Find the immediate download on Amazon.com directly here.
More about using the DVD for a movie night, click on the picture below:
