The degradation of Marilyn Monroe
Blonde review: Netflix's degradation of Marilyn Monroe - New Statesman
In death as in life, the actress has been used, abused and commodified. Netflix’s film Blonde is just the latest demeaning fiction.
By Tanya Gold
Marilyn Monroe poses at her apartment in a cover shoot for the 7 April 1952 issue of Life magazine. Photo by Philippe Halsman / Magnum
Marilyn Monroe died 60 years ago and is now buried under her cult which, as cults tend to, exists not to celebrate but to conceal and damn her. Monroe has been traduced, fictionalised and commercialised. She has been made into a cautionary tale: that’s what happens when you look like Marilyn and act like Marilyn. You die and your autopsy photograph ends up in a bestselling biography. Why not sell she who always sold herself?
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