One of the biggest surprises Mori discovered in making the movie, however, was the changing nature of Page’s fan base. Once comprised mostly of men, the bulk of her fan base is now young women—so much so that now, they’re the film’s target audience. Heterosexual men tend to love Page for obvious reasons, but for many women, Page symbolizes self-confidence, unapologetic sexuality, and bold authenticity.

“Bettie’s female fans often feel a deep emotional connection with her, which I think says a lot about the rigid expectations women still face,” Mori says.

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During her modeling career in the ’50s, Page’s fans were mostly male, for the simple reason that her job was posing for men’s magazines—which women typically did not have access to—and private photos for her employer’s male customers. The wide circulation of nude magazines started in 1953 with the first publication of Playboy, which was clearly designated exclusively for men. Page was one of their earliest Playmates of the month in 1955, with her now-iconic Christmas tree pose by photographer Bunny Yeager.

When she did bondage modeling for Irving Klaw, those photos were often done at the specific request of customers—all of whom were, presumably, men. Page’s nude and bondage photos were considered pornography, and some were published in catalogs that could only be sold in illegal, under-the-counter transactions. (As explored in Mori’s movie, people were commonly arrested for selling and buying such photos, and mail could be confiscated if someone was suspected of doing so.) Back then, it would have been unheard of for a woman to even enter a place where those magazines were sold.

But in 1957, she disappeared from the public eye. A few years earlier, then-Senator Estes Kefauver had attempted to eradicate “indecency” like gambling and nude photos. After a teenage boy died from what appeared to be accidental autoerotic asphyxiation, a Senate committee drew a (largely unfounded) connection between the death and Page’s bondage photos, and she was subpoenaed to testify in 1955 about unfounded accusations that she contributed to juvenile delinquency.

“That link was made by sexually repressive authorities—it was a completely concocted witch hunt,” says Mori. Page was never called to testify at the hearing, but she inadvertently ushered in America’s sexual revolution when people began resisting the oppression of “the McCarthyism of sex” spearheaded by Kefauver, according to Mori. The hearings led to the demise of Klaw’s business and left a dent in Page’s enthusiasm for modeling.

Since then, however, several historical events have fueled women’s growing interest in Page. It began in the ’60s with dawn of the women’s liberation movement and the sexual revolution—the latter of which Page has been credited with setting the stage for. As writer Hubert Vigilla says in his film review for Flixist, “She was a sex-positive feminist before the classification even existed.”