Hollywood is not a girl’s best friend
People have long been obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. They have tried to copy her looks, her mannerisms and her fashion sense, with this trend continuing long after her death.
However, when she was alive, gossip columns would publish crude stories about her. So, in some ways it feels ironic to see Hollywood produce movies about her illusive life after her death.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The latest of these movies is "Blonde", which is a reimagining of Joyce Carol Oates's historical fiction novel of the same name. The novel follows Monroe's career from its pinnacle to her eventual collapse. It seems that Monroe remains the person who truly embodies the overused term "icon" even 60 years after her death.
But why is it that we cannot forget her?
Monroe never left the public psyche because she is less a real woman and more a symbol. The general public feels a sense of ownership over her. Women who are as remarkable and popular as Monroe, are often reduced to become a muse for the masses.
Unlike other artistes, Marilyn did not stick around long enough to correct or reprimand the mistakes people make when telling her story. The world did not allow her to take control of her own narrative. As a result, she is rarely admired for her tenacity or bravery in speaking out against the sexual abuse she faced, or the horrors of her mental illness that she endured for many years.
The fact that more people do not know the real story behind this icon, that in itself is a tragedy.
Hailing from a working-class background, the red-haired Norma Jeane Mortenson, transformed herself into the platinum blonde myth that the world knows as Marilyn Monroe. Her path to stardom was laid out by the paparazzi, the male gaze, the underpaying movie contracts, and misquotations.
She rose to popularity in the early 1950's and is still remembered to this today. Her appearance exuded vigour and bravado, sexuality and innocence. However, beneath all the glamour and gold, this iconic actress was deeply troubled.
Monroe's career kickstarted when Twentieth Century Fox recognised her as an actress, but her contract with the studio expired after a year. She followed this by signing with Columbia Pictures and appeared in the 1948 musical romance, "Ladies of the Chorus".
In 1954, one of Monroe's most easily recognisable photos made headlines. It was shot by her friend and photographer, Sam Shaw, during the shooting of the film "The Seven Year Itch". In the photo, she is shown wearing a long, white halter dress, grinning away from the camera, letting the wind flirt with her hair and her dress, at a train station.
Back then, people perceived this photo to be permission to objectify her. The media reports only purported this notion.
The entertainment business has always been notorious for exploiting women on the basis of sex. Caught in the social web of this exploitation, Monroe was often portrayed to be the stupid blonde, the foolish woman, or the needy, submissive lover. Ultimately, these qualities became her identity even though it was a far cry from her abilities as an actress.
Society could not separate the characters she played in films from her real personality. So, despite the tremendous success of her movies like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), Monroe was riddled with insecurities when it came to her acting. Her character as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in Billy Wilder's comedy "Some Like It Hot" (1959), was the very epitome of Hollywood's desirable femininity: sexually liberated but clueless. And this is exactly where they wanted to pigeonhole her.
It is malicious and unfair how Monroe's status as a sex icon enabled the elimination of her other qualities, the characteristics that made her complex, humane and exceptional. People ignored how she was articulate in her interviews, despite her lack of formal education—which she tried to change by taking literature classes in UCLA and reading biographies of her childhood hero, Abraham Lincoln.
Despite people's continued interest in her life, people are barely aware that Monroe's achievements extended outside of being just a movie star. She successfully battled her employers for artistic freedom, equal pay, and decent working conditions. She is the poster child of rebellious actors, as she experimented with the lax rules governing actor's contracts in the early 1950's.
Monroe left Hollywood, started her own production business, and cherry-picked the projects she wanted to work on. She launched her own production firm in a field that was predominated by men, a thing unheard of at that time.
Her personal anecdotes reveal how she was isolated in the rich and flamboyant world of Hollywood, and ached to belong somewhere.
As her success continued to skyrocket, she felt an immense pressure to look her best for the camera. She would redo her makeup, shampoo several times, and spend a long time putting together outfits. Her obsession to look perfect, her environment and her anxieties catapulted her to sinking into addiction.
She stopped performing her best, and would show up late to appointments, making her seem unprofessional. Quite often, she would abuse her medication to unwind before going to work, or to help her sleep. She was contractually obligated to work on a feature film "Something's Got to Give" (1962), which remained incomplete because Twentieth Century Fox fired her for barely showing up for the shooting.
Seven weeks later, Marilyn overdosed and tragically passed away in her Los Angeles home. The world has remembered her kindlier after her death, however, they fail to understand the impact she left behind. And if we are going to celebrate her with movies and books, then it's about time we acknowledge all of the achievements she has made.
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