CLEO OBJECTS TO THE COURTESAN LABEL, SUES, and WINS AGAINST FEMINIST AUTHOR SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

Simone De Beauvoir, a feminist writer who became famous for a book called "The Second Sex," published in 1949 which is now considered a classic and revolutionary, called Cleo de Merode a Courtesan. A Mistress. A hetaeri. In The Second Sex the author examines how women have been treated throughout history. She got in trouble when she wrote that about Cleo was a courtesan. The old dancer, then about seventy-five, sued. By 1952 she had won and the defamation was removed from future printings.. 

Having had the admiration of many men, what would the beautiful ex dancer admit to? If not the King, then who? Was she rewriting her own history, saving face, or forgetting?

Like other women we've covered here at this blog, Cleo wrote and published a memoir. Hers, entitled "Le Ballet de Ma Vis" (In English, "The Dance of My Life,") came out in 1955. In it she admitted to having been involved with only two men in her life! Perhaps the woman, raised Catholic by her Baroness mother, was saying a lot to admit to two.  Born illegitimate, she never married or had children.

The list of artists, sculptors, and photographers she posed for is long. It's not likely they used a body double.  She no doubt wished to engage men's imaginations.  She was seen nude, but perhaps it could be said artistically nude rather than pornography nude.

She wrote that for a decade, until he died in 1904, she'd been engaged with a French aristocrat. Then, she said she'd been the companion of a Spanish Diplomat from 1906-1919.

I do wonder if the woman actually went from 1919 to 1966 without ever another boyfriend. It seems anything us possible but it's my opinion she chose to admit to two long term relationships. In other words two men she thought worth writing about.

Cleo had enough money to the beach town on the southwestern coast of France called Biarritz which had once been a cool place for nobles to vacation. She lived to be 91 years old and as they years past became unknown.

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