Marilyn Monroe Influence

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A blonde beautiful sexy girl whose white dress was flying is one of the most famous images that the American actress, singer, and model Marilyn Monroe made in the 20th century. As a popular icon and sex symbol in the 1950s, Monroe has influenced many artists since then. Her imitators include Madonna, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and even Lady Gaga. This can be a way to explain how the marketing of media works. Marilyn Monroe’s image uses her sexy appeal to show a powerful and independent woman in the 21st century. I will find the answer of how she has an impact on young women today to explore how some of the young celebrities today became successful. Despite the sex symbol Monroe has created for herself, she has many feminist characteristics, and perhaps she was not even aware of it. I am arguing that Monroe is a feminist because she is an independent, professional woman, she is courageous to express herself, and she is self-actualized. Banner, Lois. “Marilyn: The Passion and Paradox.” New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print. This book discusses Marilyn Monroe's extreme visibility and currency in terms of the domestic ideology of the 1950s. Lois Banner claims that Marilyn Monroe was ahead of her time and was also a victim of misogyny. To ground her argument, Banner talks about Marilyn Monroe’s work with Playboy magazine and her work with film directors. Monroe was not intended to take the picture which was the cover photo for the first issue of Playboy. Banner analyzes Monroe’s appearance in How to Marry a Millionaire, linking the organization of photographic space to domestic spatial ideology. This film was the first film to be shot in the new technology CinemaScope wide-screen which shown that Monroe was really famous at that time... ... middle of paper ... ...the Hollywood “post –feminist” movie is a kind like fake perfect lives for women which does not talk about the pressure from work and family. As Thompson said by the end of the article that people need to focus on the films that not made by Hollywood, the ones which deal with the real faces and daily life of people. I will compare this idea with another secondary source that the author Lois Banner’s analyzes of the movie How to Marry a Millionaire to show the progress of the feminist movement. I am arguing that most of Monroe’s roles in the movies are the girl who is brave to fight for true love to show that she is a feminist in the 1950s. If using Thompson’s standard of the feminist movies, Monroe’s type of movies will just be the typical classical Hollywood movies. That’s will help me support my subclaim that Monroe’s image has be redefined in the new century.

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