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Marilyn Monroe is a Feminist Icon
But the male patriarchy saw her as nothing more than a sex icon
One of the most iconic photos of the 20th Century is of Marilyn Monroe standing on a subway gate and trying to hold her skirt down as a gust of wind blows it up.
Dressed in a silky white dress, Marilyn exudes excitement, confidence, energy, and sexuality. In the photo, she perfectly embodied her third husband’s Arthur Miller’s, description of her: “so gorgeous, so glamorous, so incandescent.”
But it was all a façade. Her radiating smile hid the ugly truth of her exploitation.
“At first it was all innocent and fun,” Marilyn said, “but when Billy kept shooting the scene over and over the crowd of men kept on applauding and shouting, ‘More, more Marilyn — let’s see more.” Then Billy brought the camera in close, focusing on her crotch. “What was supposed to be a fun scene turned into a sex scene.”
Marilyn’s billowing skirt was supposed to be playful and innocent but the lurid men in the audience saw her as a sex toy. She was just a sex object for Hollywood to exploit and sex-hungry men to drool over. The male patriarchy saw her as nothing more than a slut, a party girl, a playmate, an unintelligent bimbo.
