PBS never ceases to amaze me, I'll tell you that. Last night their American Masters show decided that it was fitting to highlight Marilyn Monroe! I'm still shaking my head.
For someone whose claim to fame is her obvious in-your-face sexuality, I suppose she was a bit "ahead of her time" in that regard, but, is she really worth putting on American Masters?
The show, as I remember it, paraded many people, men and women, who had met and/or photographed Monroe. Each one commented on how "luminous" and beautiful she was in person. They all seemed rather obsessed with her looks, and her "star quality."
I was equally puzzled by MS Magazine's Gloria Steinam's fascination with her. Is she worthy of feminist study because she was "exploited" by men? Would she have been so exploited if she didn't allow it and encourage it by the public persona she cultivated?
Is such "fame" worth it in the end? Does one really need to be a "star"?
In a way, Marilyn Monroe was ahead of her time. Now, unfortunately, many, many women, young and not so young, feel that cultivating physical attractiveness is the goal for females in this culture, while at the same time, decrying the resulting behavior of others (mainly males) as wholly without logic and reason.
4 comments:
A lot of this de-humanizing of womanhood into sexual pleasers has a lot to do with women magazines.
I remember the flack that Kate Winslet received on daring to have curves! It is the same with many 'stars'. What is worse are the stars who have just given birth. There was a story with a 'shock' basis that Katie Holmes had NOT lost her 'baby pregnancy fat' the same with Elle McPherson who entered rehab for depression why? She got depressed when after two weeks she had not lost her pregancy weight gain, good grief!
I also read in a womans magazine that women like Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren would be considered too fat for TV and movies, sheesh!
The women magazines are part of the problem and NOT the solution.
Interesting piece ty 4hischurch.
Marie
You are right--as addicting as women's magazines can be, they *are* part of the problem, that's for sure!
I can't believe Elle McPherson went into rehab for depression bkz she hasn't lost her baby weight 2 weeks PP!!! I hope they told her that her expectations were totally unrealistic!!
Relying on one's physical image is a recipe for disaster.
Women's magazines are terrible. They send the message, "You aren't good enough, thin enough, rich enough, stylish enough.."ad nauseum. They are designed only to sell merchandise in the form of happiness.
The other goal of these magazines are to peddle their anti-woman propaganda: abortion, birth control, anti-marriage. That's a lengthy list, too.
I quit buying them several years ago.
You are so right--women's magazines certainly are voices for anti-woman propaganda, all under the guise of "women's rights".
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