Editing Russ Meyer (section)

== The Meyer physical archetype ==
Russ Meyer's lifelong unabashed fixation on large breasts featured prominently in all his films and is his best-known character trait both as an artist and as a person. His discoveries include Kitten Natividad, [[Erica Gavin]], [[Lorna Maitland]], [[Tura Satana]], and [[Uschi Digard]], among many others. The majority of them were naturally large-breasted and he occasionally cast women in their first trimesters of [[pregnancy]] as it enhanced their breast size even further.<ref name=russmeyer>Meyer 2000.</ref>

Rarely were there cosmetically enhanced breasts in any of his films until ''[[Up! (1976 film)|Up!]]'' (1976) and ''[[Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens]]'' (1979). However, by the early 1980s, when surgical advancements had made the gargantuan breasts of Meyer's fantasies a reality, many felt he had started viewing the female body as simply a "tit transportation device"<ref name= mcdonough>McDonough 2004.</ref> and that his aesthetic vision was no longer attractive or vibrant. Darlene Gray, a natural 36H-22-33 from Great Britain who appeared in ''[[Mondo Topless]]'' (1966), is said to be Russ Meyer's most busty discovery.<ref>McDonough 2004, p. 182.</ref>

The Russ Meyer female physical archetype is fairly complex to decipher. Firstly, it's not to be confused with today's surgically enhanced Hollywood porn starlets or even slim, naturally endowed actresses. Russ Meyer was almost as much about a shapely 1950s [[hip-to-waist ratio]] or "[[wasp waist]]" as he was about very large breasts. The six-pack [[abdominal muscles]] and built-up squarish appearance of modern Hollywood figures do not mesh with his pin-up aesthetic.<ref name=paulwoods/><ref name=russmeyer/><ref name=mcdonough/> Secondly, he required that even his most busty actresses looked good braless; "gravity-defying" and "[[cantilever]]ed" became two of his favorite expressions.<ref name=russmeyer/>

In his films such as ''[[Vixen!]]'' and ''[[Cherry, Harry & Raquel!]]'', some of the actresses do not have large (by Russ Meyer standards) breasts yet their chests are always accentuated by use of camera angles and well-constructed bras. Reportedly, Erica Gavin was cast as the lead in ''Vixen!'' because her "smaller" bust would make the character "more relatable to women."<ref>McDonough 2004, Chapter 10, p. 213.</ref>

He went on record numerous times to say that [[Anita Ekberg]] was the most beautiful woman he ever photographed and that her 39DD breasts were the biggest in A-list Hollywood history, dwarfing both [[Jayne Mansfield]] and [[Sabrina (actress)|Sabrina]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Sullivan, Steve|date=1995|title=VaVaVa Voom!: Glamour Girls of The Pinup Era}}</ref><ref>McDonough 2004, Chapter 4, p. 83.</ref> [[Dolly Parton]] was the only modern Hollywood actress Meyer ever expressed interest in working with.<ref>Frasier 1998.</ref>

While he often referred to his actresses as "Junoesque" and "Amazonian",<ref name="mcdonough"/> this was probably more in their spirit than their actual physiques"<ref>{{cite news|title=McDonough 2004, Chapter 14. p. 321.}}</ref> as Meyer rarely cast very tall or symmetrically built actresses with strong legs and large posteriors.

So while the general public could easily perceive [[Jane Russell]] or [[Sophia Loren]] as "Russ Meyer material", their balanced bodies did not mesh with Meyer's precise aesthetic preferences."<ref>McDonough 2004, Chapter 3.</ref> And indeed, Meyer said many times that it was [[Gina Lollobrigida]]'s smaller-breasted figure that he preferred visually over her larger-breasted, taller and bigger-hipped rival, Sophia Loren.<ref name=paulwoods/> Thus, Meyer's oeuvre shows the viewer that while his actresses could easily be described as voluptuous, buxom and curvaceous, it's debatable to some if they were strapping, stately or even statuesque as Meyer readily proclaimed.<ref name=paulwoods/><ref>McDonough 2004, chapters 14–15.</ref>

The tallest actress Meyer ever cast in a lead was the {{convert|1.75|m|ftin|0|abbr=on}}, slim-hipped, huge-breasted [[Lorna Maitland]]<ref>Meyer 2000, Volume 2, p. 165.</ref> (working with whom he admitted he found intimidating).<ref>McDonough 2004, p. 134.</ref><ref>Ross, Glen (June 1987), ''Adult Video News'', Volume 2, number 4.</ref> Nearly all the other women he featured were no taller than {{convert|1.71|m|ftin|0|abbr=on}}.<ref name=russmeyerVol1>Meyer 2000, Volume 1.</ref> [[Tura Satana]]'s performance as Varla in ''[[Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!]]'' was Meyer's only true portrayal of the large, strong and aggressive Amazonian archetype in the classic visual sense.<ref name=russmeyerVol1/><ref>McDonough 2004, Chapter 8.</ref>