Hedy Lamarr, By Rebekah Morris
Hey baby.
You’re beautiful.
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As women, our achievements and successes are often placed inferior to men. When we are mentioned in history it is often because we are so beautiful, so ugly, or so plain that our appearances are prioritized above any other characteristics. Hedy was a bombshell, with dark hair, a tiny nose, heavy lidded eyes, and a sultry glance.
Hey baby.
You’re beautiful.
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When I first came across Hedy Lamarr and read about her innovative mind, all the articles couldn’t seem to grasp that she was beautiful too. It was as if the writers believed that beautiful women couldn’t be brilliant. And because she was both, people were unaware of how to handle her.
By age five Hedy could disassemble her music box and put it back together. Her father had taught her the workings of machines. I imagine a father in the early 1900s teaching a girl about the workings of a machine: how each screw fits in its place. I imagine a father glowing with pride when his daughter was not only capable, but also curious. She would have been asking question after question, lips never stopping.
As Hedy aged though, her beauty paved her way to acting. She became an actress and played in a few movies. She married a man who was unlike her father, a man who dolled her up and expected nothing but smiles and graciousness.
Hey baby.
You’re beautiful.
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The story is that she fled from her husband to London when she was nineteen. Why is it that when a woman leaves a man it’s fleeing, but when a man leaves a woman it’s leaving? She left him to be her own person. Good riddance.
In Hollywood, around people who inspired her she started to invent. And invent she did:
She sketched a design for faster planes from studying birds and fish
She upgraded the machinations of stoplights
She created a tablet that dissolved in water
She helped build a new communication system used to help guide torpedoes to their targets in war (with the help of George Antheil)
While the Navy rejected their patent, more than fifty years later they were both awarded the Pioneer Award in 1997.
She has now been inducted into the Hall of Fame for her frequency hopping technology. I wonder why it is that the dubbed “mother of Wi-Fi,” is a woman I have never heard of before...
Hey baby.
You’re beautiful.
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Hedy Lamarr once said, “The brains of people are more interesting than the looks I think.” This comes from a genius of a woman who was only ever told she was a genius after she was told she was beautiful. Her work was barely recognized when she was alive. People didn’t want her to be an inventor; they wanted her to be a pretty actress. She was a feminist, a woman striving for significance in a man’s world.
It is so pleasing to know that a creator of the communication systems that rules our world today started from a curious woman who wanted to invent. Hedy is also called the most beautiful inventor, but she would simply want to be called an inventor.
Hey baby.
You’re brilliant.
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