Further Explanation

The Reason that I offered the background concerning the three events is because it helps me understand  what was going on in the 1950s when Joe Shere created it. Knowing the background of the photo and the time period, it tells me where people stood socially and morally. For example, In the image Sophia was offended that Jayne was the last one to show up to her dinner party and that her outfit was very inappropriate. This caused the iconic photos to be taken by Shere when Sophia was looking at Jaynes chest. This told me about the standards of clothing in the 1950s. Jayne had on a backless dress and a lot of cleavage showing. Back then many would have looked at Jayne as not respectable or “asking for it” as in attention or the eyes of men. In Todays standards, women wear backless dresses and show cleavage all of the time. Especially when it comes to upper class celebrities. Another way The events help me understand the piece was Jaynes history of publicity stunts. As mentioned before there was a time where she was a in a pool and her top just happened to come off in front of many credited journalists at the time. That tells me that Jayne is willing to go the extra mile to gain the attention of others. This is a theory of what she was doing in the image taken. She purposfully showed up late to the party wearing what she did to gain the attention of Sophia and obviously the photographers. 

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

1950 to 1960

Parent Chronology: