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12+ Works 621 Members 12 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Lois Banner is Professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California.

Includes the names: Lois Banner, bannerdrloisw

Image credit: USC

Works by Lois W. Banner

Associated Works

Women's America: Refocusing the Past (1982) — Contributor, some editions — 333 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

Ideal Beauty: The Life and Times of Greta Garbo, by Lois w Banner, is a detailed biography of Garbo as well as a history of beauty, with a close look at where these two topics intersect.

Because of the recent ill-advised and just blatantly mistaken comments Banner made at The Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, a conference she co-founded in 1973, I feel I have to point out that the history of beauty Banner has researched, here and in her earlier book, could just as easily be called a history of white beauty due to a glaring lack of inclusivity. That lack is less important in a biography of Garbo than it was in her other history. I won't address her horrible comments, it doesn't relate to this book beyond shedding light on the character and/or thought processes of the author.

The biggest strength of this volume, as far as it applies to potential readership, is the accessible writing which will appeal to those who simply want a biography, while still bringing Garbo's life into conversation with prevailing norms of the time. So a biography which is also heavily sociological as well.

I happen to like that Banner chose not to try to label Garbo with any label that would be only partially accurate. I have seen commentary questioning why Banner didn't label Garbo a bisexual. First, that label is not as simply defined or used as that person seems to think. Second, I think learning and understanding about Garbo, including who she may have been intimate with, is far more important and valuable than placing a poor-fitting label on her to cater to the lowest common denominator.

Recommended for readers who enjoy good celebrity biographies as well as those interested in film history, women's studies, and 20th century history more broadly.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
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pomo58 | Aug 2, 2023 |
This book is a very comprehensive and loving portrait of what has been found in her own file cabinets, ranging from stuffs that were found a long time ago to the very recently found (circa 2008), this must have been a cumbersome effort to collate, and is beautifully photographed with roses and interesting details abound. The narrative that accompanies the imagery is sparse, as it should be, for the images do the talking; the foreword and intermixed texts are really interesting, and do their bit to display Monroe as the multi-faceted person, reader and business-person that she was.… (more)
 
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pivic | 2 other reviews | Mar 20, 2020 |
I wanted to like this book. And I did learn biographical information about Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, and a great deal of historical information about America in the early twentieth century, particularly between the world wars. Unfortunately, the sexual relationship between the two alluded to on the cover is not well supported in the text - the primary supporting source is a poem, Banner's interpretation of which left me scratching my head. Mead and Benedict's other romantic entanglements, however, are more clearly presented - both queer and straight.

It is also a slow read, quite dense with detail. During the month I was actively reading it, I sometimes refered to it as The Book That's Trying to Kill Me, because its endurance was clearly greater than my own. Honestly, I probably would have liked it more had I not been woefully misled by cover copy.
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akaGingerK | 3 other reviews | Sep 30, 2018 |
I have never read a biography of Marilyn Monroe, so I have nothing with which to compare this, but this book blew me away. There were so many facets to this woman; I'm just glad my life isn't that...complicated. Wonderfully written and researched.
 
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gossamerchild88 | 1 other review | Mar 30, 2018 |

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Mark Anderson Photographer

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