But in the last fifty years this has changed drastically, due largely to the collapse of the old studio system. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, actors and actresses were virtually owned by their studios. MGM, Warner Brothers, RKO, Universal--each had its own roster of exclusive actors, whose careers they carefully developed and strategically managed over the course of decades. Typically a young actress would be hired as an ingenue, trained in deportment and diction, given a movie-star makeover (often even a new name), then carefully placed in ensemble casts before graduating to her own star vehicles, which were specially developed for her by the studio.

These days, the major studios are really just the money men. Every major actress has her own production company, which chooses, develops and packages her projects before taking them to the studios in search of financial backing. What this means, in effect, is that the stars have gone from being employees to employers; they are now in sole control of their own careers.

While this is undeniably a good thing politically, it has killed off the iconographic end of the star-making business. Without a studio-maintained staff of directors, designers and still photographers laboring over decades to create a viable and enduring persona, actresses are left to their own devices, and most fail to build any sort of meaningful body of work. As a result, their reputations seem to evaporate as they grow older or retire.

Today, names like Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman still resonate in western culture, while the names of distinguished actress from the post-studio system decades (Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep) evoke next to nothing.

It's an open secret that old Hollywood's glamour factory was largely the product of gay men. In the absence of a studio system, gay men have had to funnel these iconic energies elsewhere, resulting, for instance, in the rise of the drag queen as a social archetype. And record labels have, over the last decade, become the modern-day equivalent to the old Hollywood studios, nurturing their exclusive talents and carefully crafting archetypal images for them. The modern-day analogues to Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly are thus Janet Jackson and Britney Spears.

Chicagoan Robert Rodi is the author of numerous books, including "Bitch Goddess" and "Fag Hag." His specially written e-book serial, "Glad, Gladder, Gladys" is currently on USAToday.com.

See these other American Icons stories:
American Icons: Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly
Living Large: Existing outside the popular image of woman
Garbo Lives: Pondering the created quality of Hollywood stars