When it comes to class and character, not many women can exceed Audrey Hepburn, one of the most iconic and successful stars of her era. Her name is synonymous with an ethereal combination of 1950s and 1960s retro fashion, supreme elegance, and childlike innocence. She stood among stars like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor as the epitome of female glamour. As a decorated and award-winning actress, Audrey was known for the powerful yet, classy female roles she played in some of today’s greatest classic movies. While her work in the film industry has brought her world-renowned success, it is her captivating charisma and sophisticated style that has been regarded for nearly half a century. What seems to appeal about Audrey to girls today is not at all different from what women liked about her then. She was the link between three distant subjects back in her day:--femininity, strength, and ideology. She represented a figure all girls not only wanted to be, but could be. In other words, Audrey Hepburn was possible.
Living It
Audrey Hepburn was an iconic Academy Award-winning actress and humanitarian who starred in hit movies during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium, she lived with her mother in the Netherlands during the harsh circumstances of the Nazi occupation. Her experience under Hitler’s regime was so similar to that of Anne Frank’s that, according to Audrey, “If you read the diary [of Anne Frank], I’ve marked one place where she says, ‘Five hostages shot today’. That was the day my uncle was shot. And in this child’s words, I was reading about what was inside me and is still there. It was a catharsis for me. This child who was locked up in four walls had written a full report of every...
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...r Collins, 2010. Print.
Works Consulted
Corliss, Richard. “Audrey Hepburn: Still the Fairest Lady.” Time. Time, 20 Jan. 2007. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .
Flonder, Polly. “The Immortal Audrey Hepburn.” Biography: n. pag. Student Research Center. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. .
Lane, Megan. “Audrey Hepburn: Why the Fuss?” BBC News. Ed. Steve Herrmann. BBC, 7 Apr. 2006. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .
Moseley, Rachel. “Audrey Hepburn - Everybody’s Dream Girl.” The Guardian. Ed. Chris Elliott. Guardian News, 6 Mar. 2004. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. .
Anne Frank was my age, 15, when she was murdered by Nazis during World War II. I can’t even fathom what she must have gone through in the months before her death. Through her diary, one can understand the hardships of the Jewish people in Nazi Germany occupied countries
Anne Frank, Jeanne Wakatsuki and Elie Wiesel all are greatly affected by the war, but in different milieus and in different scenarios. Anne Frank was a 13-year-old Jewish girl who was thrown into one of the worst periods in the history of the world: the Holocaust. Though she went through awful things that many people will never experience, she always kept the faith that there was still some good in everyone. She once said, “Despite everything, I still believe people are truly good at heart.” Her diary, which she kept while her family was in hiding from the Nazis, shows the triumph of her spirit over the evil in the world even through the pain of adolescence.
Imagine it – all the rules you were raised to follow, all the beliefs and norms, everything conventional, shattered. Now imagine It – Clara Bow, the It Girl. The epitome of the avant-garde woman, the archetype of the flapper, was America’s new, young movie actress of the 1920’s. Modern women of the day took heed to Bow’s fresh style and, in turn, yielded danger to the conventional America. Yet Bow’s contagious and popular attitude came with its weaknesses - dealing with fame and the motion picture industry in the 1920’s. Despite this ultimate downfall, Clara’s flair reformed the youth and motion pictures of her time.
When many people think of an “It Girl” they think of someone as luxurious, Clara Bow was one of the very first “It Girl” of the 1920’s, yet she was not luxurious at the start. Before, Clara Bow was considered a tomboy with her ragged and dirty clothes, she would always play in the streets with boys, no girls were willing to play around with her. Later, she entered into a contest The Fame and Fortune, winning the contest; she was brought into Hollywood by B.P Schulberg. During her acting career she also developed into a flapper; flappers were 1920’s women who dressed up in short dresses wore makeup and had short hair; they also smoked and drank at night clubs. Her career had to come to an end after
... is the star of London, the “fascinating young actress of the Comedie Francaise” who “glided through republican, revolutionary, bloodthirsty Paris like a comet with a trail behind her of all that was most distinguished, most interesting, in intellectual Europe.” Marguerite is the conventional picture of a fascinating young socialite.
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
The dawn of the 20th century changed the perspective of the nation and introduced many different ideas and concepts. At the turn of the century, a new and influential ideal known as the “Gibson Girl” arose. The “Gibson Girl” image, created by the American illustrator Charles Gibson, represented the perfect female archetype of the era. In the first decade of the 1900s, the Gibson Girl, exuding confidence and poise, proved increasingly popular, and acted as an icon that women everywhere attempted to imitate. She eventually developed from an illustration into a reality as many girls applied the ideal to themselves. The Gibson Girl contrasted greatly with the common farm girl who, unlike the Gibson Girl, worked for a living. At first glance, one might perceive that the farm girl led a much more difficult life than the Gibson Girl. However, upon consideration, the Gibson Girl’s life proved just as demanding, if not more, than that of the farm girl, and illustrated upper-class society’s unrelenting superficiality and focus on perfection.
“Marilyn Monroe’s Eternal Beauty.” Los Angeles Times: n. pag. Marilyn Monroe’s Beauty. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Gianni Versace once said, “Do not make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live.” Presumably, the fashion industry is permeated with a diversity of people who display a multitude of personalities through their clothing choice. From Audrey Hepburn to Lady Gaga, I personally call these innovative individuals icons. However, there is one peculiar icon that has transformed the fashion industry world beginning in the early sixties. Correspondingly, this fashion icon is able to present her bold personality by integrating music and fashion through decades to inspire.
Think about the obstacles of a woman to become successful in the 1950s. I want to find an answer whether it was the media, which created Monroe’s sexy image or Monroe, whom herself used her sexy image to become famous. I am going to study the background of the time period, and learn if the current events such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War, had any impact on Monroe's life, or whether Monroe herself had any influences politics in mid-20th century. I will also explore on how Monroe’s image influenced and redefined the feminism in the 21st century. I believe Marilyn Monroe was a clever, confident, and independent woman who was very brave and smart. Her spirit is what the girls in the new century needed. I also would like to study why Marilyn Monroe is still relevant and even famous in the 21st century to show the power of female charisma.
The name “Anne Frank” is synonymous with hope, optimism, and belief in human good, even in times of relentless evil. Although she only lived to be fifteen, Anne is known and respected throughout the world for the humanistic light her work shed on an infamous time. Born June 12th, 1929, in Germany, she spent her early years in a middle-class Jewish-German family. However, the tranquility of the Frank family and 522,000 other German-Jews’ lives would be shattered by one of the most nefarious events in history, the Holocaust. Anne’s diary has become an influential resource in understanding historical and emotional aspects of the Holocaust.
“a beautiful instance of what is reverentially called ‘a true woman.’ Whimsical, capricious, charming, changeable, devoted to pretty clothes and always ‘wearing them well,’ as the esoteric phrase has it. She was also a loving wife and a devoted mother possessed of ‘the social gift’ and the love of ‘society’ that goes with it, and, with all these was fond and proud of her home and managed it was capably as – well, as most women do (57).”
1. Not merely handled as a precious package, but portrayed as one. Physically, she fit the part. Her hair was bobbed short to her jaw and always slicked down, parted from one side across to the other. It was a soft blonde; perhaps the only soft thing about her as the rest of her body met at sharp angles and was marked with dark lines. The skin appeared silky, unblemished and unwrinkled, still glowing with the youth of seventeen years. The eyes that met yours were large and dark, a very dramatic appeal. The lashes were fake; long and thick layers outlining the sunken pupils. Her lips sat pursed between a perfectly pointed nose and chin. This face graced the cover of Life , Look , Newsweek , Vogue , and Seventeen and filled pages within numerous American magazines and newspapers. The body that supported such a face stood as the foundation for fame and the force driving the photos. Measuring five-feet six inches from her blond head to her trendy shoed toes, she was lanky. At only ninety-one pounds, the long limbs were nothing but flesh and bone. Knobby knees and jutting elbows made graceful movements angular. Flat. No breasts curved out from her torso and no buttocks rounded from her back. She was shapeless, asexual. Thus, she was distinctive; no one before had looked quite like her. She was the “It Girl,” who resembled an adolescent boy. She was England's “Face of ‘66” (Whiteside 87). And when she stepped off of the airplane at JFK International Airport in New York in 1967, Twiggy became a “universal heroine for teenagers” (Whiteside 54).
Audrey Hepburn was like a ray of sunshine on a dark and cloudy day, a true fashion icon who would silence an entire room full of people because of her grace and natural beauty. Audrey was and still is influential to women of all ages to be yourself no matter what other people say because of events that happened to her and how she affected people around her. Audrey Hepburn, a fashion icon and actress, 1960 world war two affecting people who have lost those they love, and feeling like the world is going to crumble as we know it. Through her life she had terrible events happen, Audrey Hepburn was an influential actress to young women to fight when things are hard.
The autobiography book, “The Diary of a Young Girl”, is a collection of Dutch diary entries authored by Anne Frank, a 13-year-old Jewish girl who lived through the atrocities of the Anti-Semitist German Nazi Regime. Beginning on June 14, 1942, the diary, which Anne named “Kitty”, vividly depicts fear-filled stories of the Franks and other Jews in evading racial annihilation. Besides the stories of war, the world-renown personal account narrates a teenage girl’s blossoming and her search for identity, love, and acceptance. The entries end abruptly on August 1, 1944, signifying the Gestapo’s capture of the Frank family and all the other residents of the Secret Annexe, but despite the impermanence of Anne’s life, her legacy endures