Marilyn, Forty-Nine Years Later

Volume 2, Issue 25- June 24-30, 2011

International Tribune

She would have celebrated her 85th birthday this month.  If she were still alive, she could have been a spokesperson against nuclear proliferation, anti women’s literacy, among other things of interest in our present world. The Marilyn Monroe that graced the silver screen was an intellectual in her own right, a poet who spoke from her heart, and a realist who just wanted to accept life as it was during the tumultuous era that she lived in.  Did we know that about her? 

It is hard to be a world-famous sex symbol and to be taken seriously in the same vein.  When we look at her, we cannot help but ask if gentlemen do prefer blondes.  From Madonna to Pamela Lee Anderson, they all wanted to replicate the sex symbol that she was.  What we really do not know is that Marilyn, behind closed doors, spent most of her time reading the classic, from Flaubert to Camus, from Hemingway to Steinbeck. She found solace and revelry in the message of each novel.  A far cry from the misconceived and fallacious term "dumb blonde."

The Marilyn that we know perhaps was a woman who married several times.  She reinvented the symbol of the shiny rock and redefined its role in our consumerist society.   Diamonds became the girls’ best friends.  Little do we know that Norma Jean was really a girl just next door who tried mightily to find a family she could call all her own, and a partner whom she can trust and be herself with.  She simply did not want to be alone.

In her time, where women were not encouraged to pursue a higher education, Marilyn self- educated herself.  She found her way to read groundbreaking novels that inspired her war generation to understand more and overcome the darkness of this era.  The Marilyn that we do not really know of was a brave and intellectual one.  She rid of herself from her very young first marriage to pursue her personal ambition which was very rare and admirable for women to do at that age and time.  In reality, her books and her diary became her best friends.  And not the diamonds and fame we all know she enjoyed in front of the camera.  She was inspired of such figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Greta Garbo.  She once said that Greta’s artistic creativity, personal courage and integrity were immeasurable.  Something she wanted to emulate and held very close to her heart.

Blondes certainly have more fun as she had shown us in the big screen but behind the glimmer of Hollywood – the Marilyn that we do not know of was always ready for an intellectual discussion.  Marilyn found time to meet with the famous literary circle of her time, such as Carlson Mc Cullers and the great Danish writer Karen Blixen.  And then eventually, her marriage to Arthur Miller- one of America’s finest writers of his generation. Apart from her mingling with the intellectual mafia, inside her study room, Marilyn wrote about her inner turmoil and how she could better live life.  She pondered about how to use her fame to end world suffering.  She was petrified of the H Bomb.  And the nuclear race between the two superpowers- the United States and the Soviet Union.  A nuclear annihilation would have devastated the world irreparably in a single second.  America was advancing so fast in science and technology that she once said, “We can put a man in the moon, but we still do not spent enough time to heal the human heart.”

It is true that with such fame and stardom, the limelight at times can be blinding.  Love comes and goes and when you are a sex symbol.  But in reality, Marilyn yearned for real genuine love.  She was a brave soul and took the risk.  Marilyn married four times, from a baseball player to a famous writer, and her love affairs even went as far as the White House.  Misery loves company or, who knows, maybe it was her destiny.  The plight of a wondering soul searching for the man she can really love and trust forever.  Marilyn was a sex siren, a goddess that we have all immortalized in our world.  Until her fate took her life.  Is this the price of fame or is it a curse?  

Anyway, happy birthday Marilyn!