The Girl by Michelle Morgan

Author:Michelle Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2018-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

Maureen is a true example of the kind of teenager who was fascinated by Marilyn as a person and image, but not everybody was enraptured. One young fan remembered being forbidden to see her films because his mother considered the actress to be a bad influence on young girls and boys. When his friends arranged a trip to see a Monroe film, he went along anyway, praying that his mother would never find out. Of course she did, and within minutes of taking his seat, he was dragged out of the cinema, disappointed to be caught and embarrassed to be shown up in front of his friends.

It wasn’t just middle-aged women who did not particularly care for her. Virginia Nicholson, author of Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, remembers Marilyn being famous when she was a little girl: “Like everybody else, I watched and enjoyed her films. But I never had any aspirations to be like her, as although she seemed beautiful, funny, and sexy, in the world I grew up in, she was really the personification of the ‘dumb blonde.’ We all much preferred Greta Garbo, who seemed way more mysterious and sophisticated! Yes, obviously, Marilyn Monroe was very much a 1950s ‘type’: ultra-feminine, aspirational, with all the wily pseudo-submissiveness and glamour that was unfortunately expected of women at the time. Her personal story is also deeply sad. I have always thought of her as a very damaged human being.”

Virginia’s recollection of Marilyn being the personification of a dumb blonde is an important one, because it reflects exactly what the studio chiefs wanted the public to think. It also illustrates just what the actress was fighting against during her rebellion and beyond. Feminist author and advocate Gloria Steinem had similar feelings. She actually walked out of a screening of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes because she was embarrassed and believed that Marilyn was a joke—someone who was the complete opposite of everything Steinem wanted to be in her life. It wasn’t until the women’s movement some years later that she realized what had been going on in society and Marilyn’s life during that time and wondered if she could have saved her, given the chance. Steinem’s original negative feelings were forgotten, and in the 1980s, she contributed text to accompany George Barris’s photos in the book Marilyn: Norma Jeane.

While Marilyn was campaigning for acceptance and her rights as an actress and a woman, she was unknowingly starting a ripple effect that would filter down through the decades. Fans inspired by her determination and revolution sometimes go on to have creative lives themselves. Madonna and Mariah Carey are perhaps the most famous examples of how much Marilyn inspired subsequent generations, but they are far from the only ones. Filmmaker Gabriella Apicella finds strength and encouragement through being a fan:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.