The Gateway Chronicle 2020

27
became problematic when she returned to
Germany in the 1960s where she was
greeted with protests and people calling
for her to return to America as they felt
she had betrayed her homeland.
Dietrich performing in a
cabaret show
Furthermore, fashion was an
integral part of Marlene Dietrich’s life and
it is something for which she is most wellknown.
In an interview with the Observer
in 1960, Dietrich unexpectedly confessed
that fashion was no interest of hers by
stating that, “If I dressed for myself, I
wouldn’t bother at all.” Despite this, Dietrich
became a fashion icon of the 20 th
Century given that her image was constructed
both as a political stance and as a
fashion statement. After the war, Marlene
began her cabaret career and toured the
world, putting on ambitious and theatrical
one-woman shows which included songs
from her films as well as popular songs of
the time. Marlene performed her shows in
a variety of provocative costumes. For example,
she wore figure-hugging dresses
but also a top-hat and tails which allowed
her to sing songs usually reserved for
male singers only. Thus, the bold sexual
jibe behind her haute-couture genderswitching
was crafted to be both titillating
and subversive to her audiences. Alongside
flaunting her female sensuality, Marlene
sought to support and challenge conventional
gender roles. It is no secret that
Marlene was bisexual; she enjoyed the
thriving gay scene in Berlin and attended
many drag balls in the 1920s. She also
practiced boxing, which demonstrates yet
another attempt to enter masculine society.
This shows that Dietrich was the embodiment
of the liberties of Weimar
Germany because she challenged the
status quo in every way possible. One
critic wrote that “her masculinity appeals
to women and her sexuality to
men”. Therefore, it is clear that Marlene
used her fame to expose gender
norms and unashamedly confront
them head-on.
In conclusion, therefore, it is clear that
Marlene Dietrich was an international
and cultural icon of the 20 th Century,
not only for her career but for her active
defiance against the traditional
gender roles and repressive sexual ideals
of Nazi Germany. In other words, Dietrich
successfully popularised sexuality
and sexual liberalism, words undoubtedly
shunned and much less seen publicly before
1918 in Germany, through her gender-bending
outfits and participation in
the LGBT community. Politically, particulary
in war-time Germany, Dietrich’s association
with the debauchery of Weimar
Germany alongside her resistance against
the Nazi regime made her emblematic of a
free Germany and a persistent threat to
the Nazis. Marlene Dietrich remains culturally
significant today and her influence
on current popular culture stands unblemished.
Indeed, many people have impersonated
her, most famously on Season 9 of
the critically-acclaimed American reality
show, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, where drag
queen Sasha Valour portrayed her perfectly
in the “Snatch Game”. Therefore,
Marlene Dietrich must be considered one
of the most important figures of the modern
day as her life and career has had a
continuous and long-lasting impact on the
societies of many different nations, but
most notably she unequivocally re-defined
and modernised German culture in
the 20 th Century.
Finn, U6JQ