Vintage Corner: Marilyn Monroe: More than a sex icon

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Marilyn Monroe: an actress, an icon, a lover, a star. We see her familiar smiling face, her curvy figure, her illuminating platinum hair and of course that infamous mole on posters, calendars, souvenirs, t-shirts and more. Since her death, she has graced us with her presence through clothing styles, acting techniques and so much more. Who exactly was Marilyn Monroe?

At the recent poster sale by the Memorial Union, I was shocked to see girls everywhere grabbing different posters with Marilyn Monroe’s face on it. I overheard a girl who had chosen one of the larger posters of Marilyn’s face with a quote, “It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?” Her reasoning, I heard her say to her friend, was because, “vintage is so in right now.”

I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Since when is idolizing stars who aren’t Miley Cyrus — if you can even call her a star — acceptable? Throughout my childhood, I grew up watching black-and-white movies with my grandma. I didn’t own a single Britney Spears CD, but I did own a few Frank Sinatra albums. I attempted to mimic the styles of people like Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn.

In fifth grade, when I first saw Marilyn Monroe in one of her most popular films, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” I was completely in love. She dressed in pink and flirted with each drooling man about how, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. She was confident, full of life and of course so sexy, but it wasn’t exactly cool to idolize people who aren’t on the top 40s when you are in fifth grade.

But now that “vintage is in,” I guess I am not alone. I just wish people would see her as more than a pretty picture to paste on a dorm room wall. Marilyn Monroe was one of the most captivating and intriguing women to ever live.

Marilyn Monroe was not only a sex icon but a human being.  And that is what people, still to this day, fail to recognize. She was more than just men’s greatest fantasy.

“Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered,” Monroe once said.

Marilyn Monroe wanted nothing more than to be loved for her talent. Her early works such as “All About Eve” and “The Asphalt Jungle” were small but captivating. From then on, she was typecast into her comedic, ditzy blond roles, in such popular movies as “How to Marry a Millionaire,” “Some Like it Hot,” and “The Seven Year Itch.”

It was difficult with her continuous stereotyped roles to stray to dramatic work. She once said she belonged to Hollywood because she had “never belonged to anything or anyone else before.”  In her later years, she went for more serious roles, such as the film “Bus Stop,” to very little success.

She went through life trying to prove herself, until sadly on Aug. 5, 1962, she left the world in her sleep.  Marilyn Monroe is someone whose quotes I constantly read and live by and whose movies have shaped my dreams. So please do me a favor: If you think “vintage is in,” remember that Marilyn Monroe is not just some fad.

As Marilyn said, “I want to grow old without facelifts. … I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.”

• Vintage Corner: Lessons from the late ’60s (February 8, 2010)
• Vintage Corner: Lonely girls should heed Hepburn’s classic role (November 9, 2009)
• Vintage Corner: Andy Warhol: Artistic visionary ahead of his time (October 1, 2009)
• Vintage Corner: Obsessions are often ‘Gone with the Wind’ (December 3, 2009)
• Vintage Corner: Frank Sinatra: A musician with class and style (October 22, 2009)

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009, 1:26 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.