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Farrah Fawcett: an American feminist icon
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It is hard to believe that she was only a regular on ‘Charlie’s Angels’ for one season, yet when anyone thinks of that classic 70’s show, Farrah as Jill Monroe is the first character they think about. At the time the show experienced a lot of feminist backlash which is unfortunate since it was one of the few television shows that really fired the imagination of girls…and believe me, I know of what I write.
Granted no one, woman or man, has perfect hair days 24/7, but the idea for girls who watched the ‘Angeles’ religiously was that we could bridge the cusp of playing with Barbie to cops and robbers. We could have a fantastic wardrobe AND shoot the bad guys – seriously folks; it was a win-win. ‘Charlie’s Angels’ demonstrated that girls could grow up to be women who controlled their own destinies without looking like we just mowed the lawn and scrubbed the floor.
Besides Farrah’s famous poster that sent a million teen boy hearts a flutter, there was an iconic picture of her from an episode of the show where she is on a skateboard wearing a red baggy shirt, jeans, and Nike shoes. She looked like the coolest thing ever, even though it was pretty obvious that she couldn’t skateboard to save her life. Because she looked so cool doing it, I took up skateboarding and continued to do it up and down a steep hill until I fell and had to acquire stitches – I still display the scar with pride. The Angels made it okay to remain a tomboy and still be interested in fashion.
I know at the time of the series many social critics took it on because the women were dressed in the hootchie mama styles that were the height of fashion in the 1970’s. My goodness, we couldn’t have an army of woman released in the workplace who displayed the curvy contours of a woman’s body. There were also feminist critics that didn’t like the show because it was geared to a male audience. I’m sure that all of the arguments about the program had validity, but for me the Angels were the first portrayal of women, not girls, who just wanted to have fun. They were depicted as being close friends despite working together and despite being judged by their prettiness (let’s be honest shall we – no one wanted to be Sabrina…God bless her) yet despite all the things that media had taught girls and women prior to that time (you know, the BS that we should all be attentive wives and mothers and live for everyone else besides ourselves) here were three women, though fictional, that were living their lives for themselves.
Years later when I was studying the first phase of Women Studies at the University of Missouri – Columbia, I coined a term that I still use; ‘Charlie’s Angels Feminism.’ It meant basically that women can do everything that men can do and still have fabulous hair.
As you can probably tell, the hair thing is important to me. Funny, as in odd and not ha-ha, that both Farrah and I have experienced hair loss due to chemo treatments. I’m feeling much better and my hair is growing in quite nicely I must say, in fact for the first time in my life my hair naturally curls the same way that Farrah’s used to do so many years ago. I know that Farrah has been fighting her cancer with everything at her disposal and I’m glad. None of us know if she will win her battle, but all of us hope that she will.
The truth is that despite everything she will remain the forever glory girl in our minds that she has been in image for the last…could it be?...forty years. In many ways she was the first feminist sex symbol although a lot was made at the time of her ‘Angel’ days that she would have to be released each evening to make dinner for her hubby who was the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ at the time, Lee Majors. Can you even imagine now a female star bragging that she has to be home at a certain time to make her husband dinner? Let’s face it; some things are way better now than they used to be.
My point about Fawcett, who skyrocketed to fame, was that she displayed something much different than the perennial sex symbol favorite Marilyn Monroe. Granted both were blonde and could persuade men to do their biddings by batting their eyelashes, but Fawcett was unlike Monroe in that she had a strong face and she used her body not only to entice the opposite sex, but to be active on her own terms. Part of her appeal to both women and men was that she was very natural looking. Despite her hair, which she claimed was naturally curly and dried in her famous style (I suspect some fibbing on her part) she looked like she could go on an afternoon hike, shower, and then dance the night away. Monroe on the other hand looked like she would sleep all day, take some of her ‘dolls,’ bathe (bubble bath of course) dress up in some elaborate dress and then sing/dance/fall down, take some more ‘dolls,’ and pass out.
In years after the ‘Angles’ Fawcett made some interesting choices in movies and plays such as ‘The Burning Bed,’ ‘Extremities,’ and ‘Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story.’ Most of her memorable parts were in the television medium which is where she got her start in commercials (for awhile people thought she was married to Joe Namath because the two starred in several spots together).
If you stumble upon this article you might ask yourself why I felt compelled to write it. After all, as of this writing, Thursday night, all reports are that Fawcett is still living. I’m writing it because I think often we pay tribute to people after they are gone and that is a damn shame, although I doubt seriously that Fawcett would ever read this or have someone read it to her, I felt that I needed to write it. I just wanted to proclaim in a public way that this woman meant something to me while I was growing up. I want to wish her well and I hope that her journey – whether it is life or death, brings her peace.
Update, Farrah Fawcett died today, she was 62.
I wrote this on essay originally on May 14th and posted it on another site. Although it is not literature related, I thought under the circumstances it was appropriate.
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