Even now, forty years after Doris Day's last film and twenty since her last regular television appearances, the star's name retains currency: she is often invoked as shorthand for a kind of sexuality now felt outmoded, with virginity firmly maintained until marriage. Although this assumption is widespread, close attention to the facts of Day's own life challenges it, and the majority of her film roles also prove otherwise, with Day most frequently portraying a woman of maturely sexual desires. This project will investigate why the rigid view of Day's virginity should have arisen and become so indelibly fixed to the star, one of the most popular in American cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. \n\nDespite this popularity, and the longevity of Day's career, work on the star is curiously meagre. The project will question, as it corrects, this oversight, suggesting the dearth of critical material results from the passé sexual rectitude Day seemingly evokes. Taking a twofold approach, the project both closely examines Day's onscreen roles and performances, and explores material from other popular media for the source of the virgin myth. Day featured continuously in public discourse, and media stories were often devoted to her personal life: it was widely known that she had been married three times and had a son. Why then did the pejorative label, 'the forty year old virgin' arise, and why has it stuck so tenaciously to Day, even now?\n\nThis project investigates a range of sources in order to discover why this maturely sexual star has become indelibly associated with maintained virginity. Firstly Day's characters and performances across her 39 films are analysed in detail, in order to see if maidenly qualities are always present. Initial findings indicate that this was not the case, and that though Day did play a variety of women with different sexual statuses (shy ingénue, brassy chorus girl, wife and mother, dignified widow), most often her characters had clearly defined sexual desires and experiences. Next, other contemporary films with similar female stars are examined, to see if, just by being in a Fifties or Sixties romantic comedy, Day would inevitably have to 'play a virgin'. Again, first findings indicate otherwise: other older female stars, even in comparable films from the same film-makers, did not face similar charges of prudishness, but were read as another female archetype, the experienced older woman. This figure can be seen to link to the 'cougar' emerging in today's media. Both then and now, the older woman's knowledgeable sexuality threatens even as it excites.\n\nAfter this close look within the films and Day's subsequent TV work, the project focuses on contemporary popular culture contexts. Using a variety of sources, including newspaper stories, articles from film, fan and lifestyle magazines, reviews and gossip, the developments in Day's screen 'persona' are charted, highlighting changing public perceptions. Film theorist Richard Dyer affirmed in his 1979 book 'Stars' that a star 'persona' was constructed across a range of media texts. These included film roles, but also moments outside the films, both public events such as premiere attendances, and more private ones like changes in partner. With Day, however, neither public nor private facts correspond with the aged maiden she is popularly supposed to play and be.\n\nWhat, then, is at stake in the maintenance of Day's notional chastity, both in its original context, and now? What is comforting about a woman in her late Thirties still being a virgin? Why - and whom - does the contrary insistence on her possession of sexual desires, agency and experience disturb? The project will endeavour to answer these questions as it charts changes in the public perception of Day, disseminating its findings within the academy via a monograph, refereed journal article and conference presentations, and to a wider audience via a series of public talks and screenings.