ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that social class identities are integral to some of the most highly sexualized images produced in post-war Hollywood film. It considers the tools of intersectionality to analyze the juxtaposition of social class and gender identities that are integral to the construction of many sexual images. Social class is central to the filmic traditions often offered in feminist film literature as counterpoints to Laura Mulvey's sweeping statements. Depictions of sexuality in the 1946–1962 period reflected more general cultural concerns regarding gender, social class, race, and ethnicity. Moving to the areas of film noir and the star persona of Marilyn Monroe, the chapter explains that classed identities are integral to the depiction of female allure. In contrast to the Alfred Hitchcock's theory of allure, it focuses on a lower-class sexuality. With both Monroe and the film noir femme fatale, it is the quality of "trash" that excites.
