Does Marilyn Monroe represent a healthy ideal of American womanhood or hide a fear of hysteria among young American women today?
IMO Monroe presented a false facade of childlike innocence which actually hid her own personal fear of ending up in a mental hospital like her mother.
Thus, she is representative of a small minority of women whose mothers were taken advantage of by men.
However, Monroe's strategies that she employed through her many characters movies actually represents the fantasies of men about sexual stereotypes of women.
As well, her "dumb blonde" stereotypes are actually a clever facade designed to fool men, and sometimes women, into believing her to be more naîve than she actually was.
Yes, it was all an act. However, it is more likely that she was being taken advantage of by men, and doing tit for tat subtly.
I also see self deception at work in some of her characters, which suggests willingness to deceive oneself about the reality of the situation in order to escape anxiety about one's place in the world.
Even though Monroe appears to be a witting pawn of men, she too is a witting manipulator of men whose demeanor is a beautiful distraction from the fear all women have to face about destiny.
For Marilyn Monroe was especially afraid that she might end up mad in a mental hospital like her mother. My theory about why her mother ended up there is simplistic: she was taken advantage of by Marilyn's father and was not emotionally supported by her own mother (Marilyn's grandmother) due to her lifestyle.
Indeed, there is enough evidence to suggest her behavior from puberty to her death as indicative of child abuse. Furthermore, even though Marilyn's mother Gladys Baker was known to be mentally unstable, the etiology of her mental illness was never mentioned, probably due to a health respect about privacy of women with obvious signs of madness.
My guess is, Gladys Baker too might have been abused as a child. However, a clue appears in the early life of Marilyn Monroe when her maternal grandfather, Otis Elmer Monroe died of syphilis of the brain in 1909. He had been institutionalized at a mental hospital the previous year.
Thus the root of Gladys Baker's madness is syphilis, which was common around and before the turn of the 20th Century. As well, the death of a sibling may have been a childhood trauma which affected her deeply, and lead me to suspect that her own family were affected by their son's death.
As well, a history of depression runs in the family as Gladys' brother committed suicide after being let out of a mental asylum, and a grandfather committed suicide after struggling with depression.
Evidence of little or no emotional support appears when young Norma Jean Baker is rejected by her grandmother Della when Gladys Baker is rebuffed by her attempts to get her mother to look after the child.
As well, Marilyn Monroe's later characterization as thinking her first foster father, Albert Bollender, was a woman either indicates a hilarious story played for laughs, or the possible evidence that the foster father might have been either a cross dresser or closet homosexual who married in order to keep up appearances.
In actual fact, there is no Albert. Mr. Bollender's name was actually Wayne Bolender. Thus, the wikipedia entry below is full of inaccuracies.
Overall, Marilyn Monroe's early life as a child of the 1930s and early war era lacks a strong father figure, which is essential to a woman's character and adult emotional stability. Indeed, a healthy relationship with men may be maintained when a girl is free of childhood abuse and trauma, and a father or substitute father figure establishes and maintains a healthy role in her life.
I see little evidence of this occurring in young Norma Jean Baker's life before puberty. However, I see evidence that the future Marilyn Monroe adapted well to the lack of a father in her life.
Even so, the victimization of Monroe by her doctor led to her death from barbiturate poisoning. Her difficulties before her death are indicative of drug abuse, abuse that was facilitated by a doctor who may have overprescribed.
Merci Marilyn! Tu as joué le partie bien.
Reference:
Early life of Marilyn Monroe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_Marilyn_Monroe
50 Playboy pictures of Marilyn Monroe hid from us: http://coed.com/2012/11/19/50-rarely-seen-marilyn-monroe-playboy-photos-in-celebration-of-the-nude-marilyn/#photoid=44
Marilyn Monroe on Marilyn documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyWW0bDnY28
In this documentary, you hear Marilyn Monroe's story in her own words.
