Marilyn Monroe is one of America’s most notable cultural icons.
Before her death in 1962, she was a successful model and stared in many movies.
What she is most known for, however, is her sex appeal.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson, a brown haired
brown eyed girl from an extremely broken family. She spent most of her
childhood in foster homes before marrying her first husband, James Dougherty in
1942. During WWII, Monroe started working at a factory that made airplane parts
for the war effort. There, she was noticed by a photographer taking pictures
for a magazine of women involved with the war. The photographer told her to
apply to a modeling agency. They were however looking for a women with blond
hair so she dyed her hair blond. The agency also did not like the name Norma
Jean for a model, so eventually the name Marilyn Monroe was chosen to make her
appear more appealing and sexy. 
After her career started to take off, everything that
defined Norma Jean was gone and was replaced with Marilyn. She was crafted into
the women every man wanted. Her transformation shows just how much sex is
defined by culture. Culture (in this case the agency, all employers she worked
for, and the people she impressed) was not okay with the former version of
Monroe. In order to make money and to become an icon she had to transform
herself into someone completely different. Not only did her hair and her name
change but her behavior did as well. Instead of just smiling normally like she
did in her first professionally taken picture, she learned to perfect the
seductive smile and the alluring squinted eyes. Her hair was always done in
curls that framed her face and was always dressed in the most appealing
clothes. Her beauty mark, the one that is always seen in the most “Marilyn” of
pictures, was also an addition. Most of her later photos were taken at an
upwards angle with her mouth slightly open which has become one of the most
seductive styles in photography.
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The transformation of Marilyn argues
that sex is entirely defined by culture and as time goes on what that is
changes. Marilyn was defined by what the people wanted, what her employers
wanted, and what would make the most money. She was successful greatly due to
her transformation. After she was defined by culture, she started to define
culture. Much of what sex appeal "is" today was defined by Marilyn Monroe.
I love how you track the evolution of Marilyn in this post! Culture really shaped her from your normal, every day girl to the world's biggest sex icon. I think it is interesting to also analyze and examine the effects that culture's pressure to be "sexy" and "appealing" had on her psyche. Many of her biographers allude to the fact that she was emotionally unstable. I think that the pressures of society to conform to every man's "dream girl," definitely could have some responsibility in that area. She completely had to drop her identity and create a new persona. This demonstrates the extremely heavy influence that society's can potentially have over a person. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your post, as it was really easy to understand by using Marilyn Monroe. She is the epitome of a sex symbol and representative of media's attempt to sell sex. Imagine being Marilyn Monroe. Everyone looked to her to remain beautiful and always smile, but as Emily mentioned in her comment, no one ever mentioned the emotional issues she faced. Why is that? It would ruin her 'perfect' image. This is an issue in our society today. Rather it be trying to conceal ones emotions, issues with self-esteem or issues with gender identity, the media fails to give us the complete story. Marilyn Monroe also symbolized how we look at the appearance of things, but no further. As consumers, we fail ourselves by not looking more into it. But that is the magic of sex in advertisements and our culture. Even unconsciously, we are attracted to the sexual element of something. falling blind to the underlying truths or reality of it holistically.
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