Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this well written book, Toni Bentley traces how 5 women (among others) explore the image of Salome to express their freedom.
These women existed in the early part of the 20th century, when the industrial revolution had gotten off the ground, and our material reality was suddenly released from its constraints. We were now able to re-create our identity anyway we sought… and these women did so through the story of Salome… a story about a will-full jewish princess who uses her sexuality to decapitate a religious saint.
This tale not only encapsulates the mystery of the femme fatal, but it also becomes an expression of female freedom, in a public sphere dominated traditionally only by men… Through embracing this image, many women found freedom, not just personal artistic expression, but also to some extent, financial freedom… although the story varies from individual to individual.
Bentley only seeks to explore this topic through the lense of biography and personal history. It’s somewhat out of her scope to examine how economical and political liberalism at full swing sought to defamiliarize social labels. How this happens is perhaps unimportant but Bentley does note that it’s no joke that by skirting the boundaries of social acceptability (dancing in various states of undress) many of these women faced real retribution from the political powers that be, as scapegoats. In each case, though these women were able to successfuly co-opt that image of Salome, to make it their own and use that social prohibition to their personal advantage… their ability to do so relied very heavily on society’s (at that time) ability to create a class of luxury, separated from the means of production by a market place… in a sense, a group of people who could participate in the group fantasy of entertainment, with the means and material access at their collective hands to create elaborate sets to express any such radical ideas.
It’s also no mistake that each of these women entered the field of opera and dance without formal training… ambitious women who were willing to cross boundaries to do so, to take center stage, but not relying on the traditional routes for stardom (for those are controlled by conservative hands).
Delightful book to read… although I would have liked some conclusion perhaps… though ending with Colette, the brightest story of them all, was a good move on Bentley’s part… perhaps saying all she wanted to say with that ending.
