It is a revelation to my students that the cultural phenomenon of "male celebrity that teenage girls love because he's sexy but coded as a bit effeminate, and that their dads hate for the same reason, which makes the girls love him even more" is literally a century old.
100 years ago newsJuly 18, 1926: An editorial in the Chicago Tribune calls into question Rudolph Valentino’s masculinity, just as his latest film “The Son of the Sheik” is about to go into wide release. The piece somehow draws a link from “pink powder puffs” dispensed in a men’s bathroom to the romantic hero. 1/4