Representation- Female appearance in the media (Marilyn Monroe)

Norma Jean Baker

Born Norma Jean Baker and died as Marilyn Monroe at the age of 36, she is arguably the most identified female  actress and performer there ever was. We studied the representation of female performers in the lesson however, I wanted to do a post on a particular actress I thought was one of the victims of this representation and someone I admire also. I chose Norma for this post on representation because I thought what she went through with all the wrong "dumb blonde" roles, the unwanted attention and the "sex-bomb" reputation, Norma is an example of the classic representation of women in the media. Although through time, the media's perspective has morphed into different representations of women, some of the previous typical representations that Norma herself faced still linger in today's representation of females in the media.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn in "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957)

Marilyn's story was sold as "the beautiful girl who got discovered by chance" hiding the reality of how much work and effort she put into being noticed. This was the first step for Norma, and she soon understood that to do this she had to sell herself.
 Norma started out as a model & making adult movies, because although Hollywood made it out to be this way, it was quite rare you'll get noticed by chance.
Women at the time in the entertaining business were expected to be "pretty" in order to be successful in entertainment- particularly in singing and acting. After Norma signed her contract with Fox, she was told to change her birth name of Norma Jean Baker to Marilyn Monroe, to make it more memorable and appealing to the public. She bleached her hair following the advice of Fox and had minor plastic surgery carried out. All of this trouble was put into enhancing her appearance rather than her acting skills. It was Marilyn's choice to pick a mentor  helping her achieve her full potential. This alone displays  just how look-driven the media is; particularly with females, as an attractive actress also meant someone to look up to for the female public and a "perfect woman" to dream of being with for the male public.

 Throughout Marilyn's acting roles, she was expected to bring nothing more to a role other than her obvious attractiveness and sexuality, which affected Marilyn's life on a large scale because she wanted to be taken as a serious actress rather than a woman who's famous for her looks. Most of her roles displayed a weak-minded, pretty female who fell for the handsome and dominating "prince" figure. Constant battles with the studio took place for better acting roles and more creative control. Despite all of this Marilyn would settle for nothing below a good performance in any role she got, pressurising herself to be the perfect performer and woman everyone expected her to be. Although now the media's representation of women has changed now, appearance still means a great deal.