A book preview & presentation by Professor Lois Banner
“Where is the love?” part of
the series of lectures by Barbara Streisand Foundation, Intersection of love,
money and power between man and women in the US
The
speaker, Professor Lois Banner, USC department of Genders Studies is an
accomplished scholar, and well-known, very much loved teacher at USC. Banner is
the First woman president of American Studies Association, Fellow of the
Rockefeller Foundation, and the author of 6 books. Her 7th book is
going to be published in the summer of 2012, and that is the biography of
Marilyn Monroe, inspiration for the lecture.
The lecture, based on the book that gives an intimate
look into Marilyn Monroe’s life, and it sheds considerable light on difficulties
that women like Monroe face, especially relationships between love/romance and
rationing of their career. It also shows how their romantic relationships
influence decisions and life they choose for themselves. It is a complex
subject and difficult territory to analyze, but Professor Louis Banner was able
to go into depth and interpret these relationships looking closely into
Monroe’s life and career.
Professor focused her presentation on pictures
and not scenes from Monroe’s movies because the public is more likely to be
unfamiliar with photographic traditions on Monroe, and more familiar of her
from the movies, but as Banner says, “those are two different Marilyns”.
The actress died in August of 1964, in the age
of 36 and she has remained as a icon of American culture until today. A
multitude of books were written about her, major artists have done paintings
and artworks inspired by her, contemporary pop stars have taken ideas and
images from her. In 2012 it will be the 50th anniversary of her
death.
The purpose of the book, says Banner, is “to show Merlyn as a real human
being, living a real life, managing a business, dealing with friends and associates.”
Banner wanted to sweep away mystery of her being “hugely sexualized creature
which are both true and untrue”, as Professor Banner says.
She wanted to write about Marilyn Monroe
because Banner was one of the founders of Women’s History and a leader in
Second Wave Feminism, she wrote biographies of women who were feminists like
for example, Margaret Mead or Roth Benedict. With advent of the third wave
feminism as younger feminists emerged and began to criticize the previous
generation for calling sexualized women “objects of male desire and not seeing
their contribution to creating their sexuality in the way they could attain
their sexuality through power” Banner simply wanted to write about that using a
historical figure like Marilyn Monroe. The book contains 10 years of research,
over hundred interviews, large amount of public archives and manuscripts. She
concluded that Monroe lived most complicated life, she took many paths and
turns, and because of the complexity of her life the research on this topic
comes to life as successful simply because the actress was the perfect figure
to be representing the issue in question.
Marilyn
Monroe was born as Norma Jean Baker in 1926. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, she
began her a career as a pin up model, which led to a film contract with 20th
Century Fox in 1946 when she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
Hardships
she endured during her childhood, like being placed from one forester home to
another impacted later her career. She was abused as a child while she lived in
some of those foster homes and her mother was diagnosed with a mental disorder
when Monroe was only eight years old. Monroe married early, became a pinup
model, divorced, then signed with 20th Century Fox and moved to
Hollywood.
“Contrary
to a common belief that she was a dumb blonde bombshell, she was astute,
determined, intelligent, energetic and perfectionist”, explains Banner. She
fought hard to the heights of Hollywood fame, using every technique and every
path she could think of conquering her own fears and multiple disabilities to
do so. She didn’t like talking about her real disabilities, because in many
ways she was a private person. Monroe was a bipolar, dyslexic, insomniac, and
she also stuttered. She hid and controlled her disabilities well but that was
very difficult to do because she was constantly in the public eye. She became
addicted to prescription drugs, which were widely prescribed to the general
public at that time. She took them to go to sleep, and then she would take
another up-mood kind to keep alert during the day. “From a perspective of
personal ills she was a survivor and not a victim,” says Banner, “who created
the roles she played weather on the screen or in real life with intelligence and
skill.”
She
further adds there was in fact “many Merilyns”, however surprising this may
sound. There was an “Intellectual Merlyn, who red widely in the worlds great
literature and self educating herself.”
There was also a Spiritual Marilyn, who studied mystical texts. She was
openly anti racist, and she dated black men. She was also sexy, party girl who
did enjoy that kind of lifestyle early in her Hollywood career. To many critics
and people who got to know her, she was endlessly fascinating and eccentric,
full of original observations and there “wasn’t a conventional bone in her
body” says Banner.
Then there
was a Radical Marilyn, who appreciated her roots and the working class and
called herself a working class girl. Towards the end of her life, she became a
supporter of Fidel Castro and even of the Chinese Communist who were ending,
what she thought, “a century of hierarchical government” tells Banner. She
believed in democracy and egalitarianism of the people of all races,
backgrounds and color. More over, she was a pioneer in sexual revolution in
which challenged censorship codes in Hollywood. She simply wanted to free the
body from constraints.
She was mature, innocent, sad and joyful, all at the
same time. Men were very much drawn to her. It was said that, “No man could
resist her.” She never refused an interview or a photo, and had a great sense
of humor. Her friends loved her, and she
was known to make up most of her jokes, for which she was famous for in
Hollywood circles.
The culture
of the pinup model changed during the WWII, it became more mainstream, and the
girls in the photos had a specific look: large hips and breasts, but innocent
face. She fit these criteria perfectly and Merlyn became the greatest pinup
model of the 20th century.
She was a
natural brunette dying her hair blond, which appealed to men, and had a plastic
surgery to remove her facial imperfections. Later she posed nude, and her photo
became the first centerfold in the first addition of the Playboy magazine
published in December of 1953. She emerges as a mainstream icon of the US culture
becoming very bold and sassy Merlyn, who is looking for fame through her
sexuality. She made her own bikinis that were only popular in beaches France
and nobody was wearing them in the States except Merlyn. “She was brave and
bold, and wanted to make a statement,” tells Banner.
Monroe was
very much commodified after the nude photograph started to circulate. They
posted her photo on playing cards, posters, caps, cans, cocktail trays, etc.
She knew how to use her knowledge, charm and “second sense” to get ahead. One
of her tactics to attract attention was not to wear her underclothes, which was
very shocking and fascinating in 1950s. She came up with a concept of slightly
open mouth and half lid eyes to become her signature look. However this look
was very much sexualized, she was always dignified Merlyn and she never looked
vulgar.
Monroe also
became famous as a glamour model, and as a Hollywood starlet that always stands
out among other starlets of her time. She was famous for wearing white, for the
reason of displaying innocence, but also to stand out in a black and white
photograph. Later, she used high fashion photographers to photograph her in a
different way and posed for glamorous magazines to get away from her over
sexualized image. One of the most famous photographs of that time was a
“Ballerina”.
She became a
brilliant actress who learned to act from many acclaimed acting teachers of
that time, including Michael Checkof. “The Dumb Blonde” is a very complicated
image in the American Theatre, says Banner, and do not underestimate it. She
was the “Great Clown” showing complexities of joy and sadness in her eyes in
numerous roles she played in her films. Her fame did not come easily because
she was fired numerous times by the major film studios in Hollywood, but Monroe
just kept going and made it to stardom within three years.
In many ways
she was also conventional, and as much as she wanted to be a Hollywood star as
a young girl, she also wanted to become a wife and a mother – 1950s convention.
She married several times but died single with no one by her side.
There has been much speculation about
Marilyn Monroe's death and the causes of it. Many have suggested that it was
highly unlikely she committed suicide but perhaps accidentally took an overdose
of drugs.
I very much
wanted to see this other Marilyn Professor Banner intended to present, and yes,
I agree she’s had a difficult and complicated life; I can see this strong,
resilient person that would do anything to succeeded. And I very much wanted to
become a fan, but I could not agree with the way she was objectified,
commodified and constantly commercialized during her short life. I believe that
she was an intelligent, ambitious young woman who knew what she wanted and
would have done anything to get it, but choices she made did not necessarily
display those characteristics and qualities. Although, I may not agree with
Monroe’s ways or paths she chose to became famous, and her ways to the top may have not
been a conventional, based on her talent, I still believe that women like her
made things possible for other generations of young feminists to explore their
sexuality and openness, and break the barriers of conservatism and oppression
previously endured for centuries. She is no doubt a great contributor.
Also, Monroe
was a visual image of innocence and sex-appeal at the same time that very much
appealed to men, so she set the path to female generations to come who get to
use their sexuality to reach their dreams if that is their path of preference.
We could blame Marilyn for setting the stage for women to be
seen as commodified sex objects in our every day media until today, but she
played an important role in a feminist movement and contributed to the second
generation feminism.
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