Daily Inspiration Quote by Mae West

Mae West turns a social slight into a punchline and, in the process, rewrites the rules of respectability. "Looked over" usually implies being judged, appraised, even objectified; "overlooked" is erasure. West picks the gaze every time, not because she is naive about its costs, but because she understands attention as currency in a culture that pretends women should be modest while rewarding them for being magnetic. The line works by flipping moral hierarchy: the supposedly cheap fate (being ogled) becomes preferable to the supposedly dignified one (being ignored). That's not capitulation. It's a dare.

The intent is razor-practical showbiz wisdom from an actress who built a career by weaponizing innuendo and refusing to act ashamed of it. In West's era, the Hays Code and public piety policed female sexuality on-screen, even as audiences flocked to it. Her persona exploited that hypocrisy: she made desire explicit enough to scandalize, but clever enough to skate past censors and leave critics looking prudish.

Subtextually, the quote acknowledges a brutal social marketplace where women are too often visible only when they're desirable. West doesn't romanticize that system; she hacks it. If the world insists on evaluating women, she suggests, then take control of the evaluation. Better to be the spectacle on your own terms than to disappear in someone else's blind spot.