About

This doctoral project investigates how British film stars, their films, and their treatment in fan magazines, were used during World War II to influence women’s behaviour. Film historian Mark Glancy (2011) notes that historians do not value film magazines as a useful source of historical evidence, due to lack of factual accuracy. Accepting that the star persona was heavily curated, this thesis revisits fan magazines’ evidential basis by utilising existing methodologies, such as content analysis and cultural analytics, to ascertain their implicit messages. Taking five popular actresses of the time as case studies, it considers the totality of their star persona, including role types, script ‘choices’ during the period and, where possible, any ‘edits’ made in respect of their biographies. The project evaluates the extent to which the agendas of UK Government departments, such as the Ministry of Information, as well as magazine editors and film studios, shaped the presentation of female stars. It considers whether overt or covert instructions merely offered a modern version of ‘conduct literature’ – guidance about social mores and self-presentations - using moral suasion to support women in maintaining contemporary beauty standards. Alternatively, the study asks, did officially sanctioned messaging lean towards ideological propaganda, in pursuit of effecting changes in women’s attitudes and behaviour to meet the establishment’s political objectives? The success of these influences upon women was not uniform, but dependent upon the agency of both the female stars and their fans respectively. Regarding stars, this relates to their complicity in the development of their own star persona, and in the case of fans the degree of cognisance of, and conformity to, the promotion of an idealised woman prototype. The project thus works to extend existing reception studies scholarship by exploring cinema-going, and wider cinema cultures, as potentially transformative as well as experiential.