Remembering Marilyn Monroe

       In a world increasingly fascinated with sexuality, Norma Jeane Mortenson must be rightfully credited as one of the first women to break such barriers.  More famously known as Marilyn Monroe, many historians and biographers look at her life with pity; she suffered a lot of exploitation at the hands of directors, husbands, and affairs.  But who was she?  I want to celebrate her life today.
       Monroe grew up with many shortcomings: she lived for the majority of her youth in the foster care system and first wed at 16 years old.  Prior to her movie career, Monroe actually responded to the Rosie the Riveter posters, working in a radio plane factory towards the war effort.  She met someone there who would start her modeling career, as her beauty was enough to get many jobs.  Shortly after, she took on some minor film roles before resigning with Twentieth-Century Fox and becoming a more prominent figure in the industry.  Her roles were relatively similar: she played the "dumb blonde" or the sexy star.  Her sex appeal would bring her images to the front covers of Playboy editions, further solidifying her public perception.
       As many Hollywood actors disappointedly face today, Monroe had become a typecast, upsetting her.  Perhaps also a result of a difficult childhood, and her image and gender leading to men throwing her around (not that it was her fault in any way that some men are scum), Monroe suffered from depression, anxiety, and subsequent substance abuse.  To cry for her feels wrong, however.  Monroe was repeatedly noted to find herself angry or disappointed because people treated her like some thing, on whose life they were entitled to an opinion, that they knew who she was because all dumb blondes and sex icons were the same.  She did not want to be analyzed as some manifestation of sexuality's controversy in that era... but perhaps that is me analyzing her desires, so bad on me.  Marilyn Monroe would die of barbiturate overdose.  It's true, her death represents the tragic result of the problematic gender roles perpetuated by the patriarchal society of the late twentieth century.  But I think that more importantly, when we remember Norma Jeane Mortenson, we need to recall all that she was able to do, embracing her sexuality because she loved it, even if her audience thought to define her by it.
        She was a sex icon, and that's pretty epic.  Yet, above it all, and perhaps because of it, especially in that era, she was a role model.