Marilyn Monroe Influence In American Culture

If one thinks about the most recognizable and famous cultural figures in the United States, the names that would come to one’s mind are undoubtedly three over any others: Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Monroe and Dean, both coming from the world of cinema, are incredibly present in Americans’ minds; just mentioning their names anyone would remember Marilyn’s famous scene on a subway grate while the train underneath blows her skirt or Dean’s teenage angst and his defiant but tormented look. Even nowadays, Marilyn “is still better known than most living movie stars, most world leaders, and most television personalities” (Steinem). Both Dean and Monroe have achieved a higher status than that of mere stars: they are icons. And as icons, they are present around us; they are needed elements in our lives that “provide ideals to live by, and they work to resolve life’s most vexing questions. Icons are encapsulated in myths. They are powerful because they deliver myths to us in a tangible form, thereby making them more accessible” (Holt “What Becomes an Icon Most?”). They are part of every American life, and at the same time, they belong to all of them, offering them the possibility of making use of them.
However, despite their relevant presence in American cultural world, it is noticeable that many

Cultural icons stand out among figures from the cultural field they belong to; among thousands of famous actors and actresses Dean and Monroe prevail, “borrowing Walter Benjamin’s terminology, [it is possible to] say that Monroe and other icons have an ‘aura’” (Hulsey 15), but this idea leads to another interrogation: what are the reasons for this prevalence? Is it a consequence of a superior artistic value? Or are there other reasons for it that do not respond to creative and cinematographic