How Marilyn Monroe’s image continues to be exploited 60 years after her death

Eternal blonde, sex symbol frozen by a few distinctive features, her red lips and her mole, Marilyn Monroe is the plastic object par excellence. The actress, who died at 36, who has now spent more time dead than alive, is inexhaustible. “One, Norma Jean, from the orphanage, belonging to no one. The other, I didn’t know the name. But I knew where he belonged. She belonged to the ocean, to the sky, to the whole world,” writes the 28-year-old actress in her unfinished memoir, published by Gallimard, about a beach memory.

This other is today the one who remains in people’s minds and who is not about to leave. Each revelation about “Blonde”, Andrew Dominik’s phenomenon film which took ten years to see the light of day on Netflix, only reinforces the questioning that surrounds this production. Filming in the very heart of the house where the actress died on August 4, 1962, we understand that the choice made is that of a realism that borders on obsession.

First film banned for children under 17 for Netflix, this fiction adapted from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates marks a turning point for the streaming platform. The reason for such classification? The staging of the rapes suffered by the actress as well as her abortions. Even before its release, scheduled for September 28 on the streaming platform, the film is fueling controversy.

His unbridled, even provocative vision offends the producers who repeatedly try to slow down the project, provoking the wrath of the director who still affirms in recent interviews that this version is the one the public wants to see. A misunderstanding also shared by the Cuban actress Ana De Armas who embodies the icon: “I can give you lots of series or films that are much more explicit and with much more sexual content than “Blonde”, explains t she for the magazine L’Officiel. “To tell this story, it was important to show all those moments in Marilyn’s life that made her end up this way. It had to be explained. Everyone knew you had to go to uncomfortable places.”

The result divides and the first impressions of Andrew Dominik’s film-monument do not come together. Some dub his project, seeing in it an elliptical story with excess having no equivalent except its subject, others seem to be disturbed by the voyeuristic and miserable character of such a feature film.

That Ana de Armas, who says she didn’t know Marilyn Monroe before as a Cuban actress, is ready to play is one thing. The director, like the author of the book from which the adaptation is taken, do well to remember that it is a fantasized and fictionalized version of the actress’s life and not a biopic. However, the emulators do not stop there.

The blonde who belonged to the whole world

Failing to project her traumas and her distress, another star has slipped into the skin of the pin-up. Or, more likely in his clothes. The artist had however during his lifetime asked that these personal effects be given to these relatives, but in 1999, the Christie’s auction house organized a massive auction of his possessions: his piano was sold for 600,000 dollars to Mariah Carey and his clothes were scattered throughout the world.

One dress in particular resurfaced last May when Kim Kardashian arrived at the MET Gala wearing a famous outfit that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. Among all the often daring outfits worn during the event, the choice of a dress by the actress, which she wore to sing a “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy in 1962, hit the headlines. A second life for clothing? “A first”, corrects the head of the contemporary department of the Palais Galliera, Alexandre Samson. “Before, I didn’t know it was about this dress and yet, it’s my job”. From icon to icon, clothing gains in symbolism. It’s not just Marilyn Monroe’s dress anymore.

On the skin, containing 6,000 hand-sewn crystals, the garment was designed specifically for Marilyn Monroe by fashion designer Bob Mackie in 1962. Having someone other than Marilyn Monroe wear such a garment is a huge risk taking. “The proportions of a woman from the 50s are not identical to that of a woman from the years of the year 2021,” explains the manager. Exposure to light degrades the coat and causes it to oxidize. The use of the heritage of Marilyn Monroe is then made at the cost of a significant sacrifice. ” At the moment [du MET], we received a lot of emails reminding us of the code of ethics. The tulle has been messed up. The crystals have fallen. We underestimate that a restoration is a very heavy and very expensive practice. “Proof is, Kim Kardashian would have worn the original dress only five minutes before changing into a replica.

Despite the controversy, the museum having acquired the famous garment for 4.8 million dollars in 2016, thus making it the most expensive dress ever sold at auction, does not retrace its steps: “Our mission is both to entertain and to educate visitors and fans. The conversations emerging around the Marilyn Monroe dress controversy allow us to do just that,” Ripley’s proudly explains on its website. In the United States, the rules surrounding the issues of museum conservation are not the same as in France, even less from a private institution. “No matter which side of the debate you are on, the historical significance of the dress has not been denied, but on the contrary brought to light. An entirely new group of young people have now been introduced to the legacy of Marilyn Monroe”. A successful marketing stunt.

In the media, the businesswoman says she also managed to get a lock of hair from the star. Whether the latter is really the one kept under glass by the Ripley’s museum or a subterfuge intended to generate buzz, it is clear that Marilyn Monroe, down to her flesh, is a real business.

During her lifetime, the exploitation of a star can culminate in her death or internment, and we remember in particular the Britney Spears affair, whose hypersexualization had led to a devastating guardianship, but when the star is dead, where does the machine stop? The image of Marilyn Monroe could never know an end and on the contrary be constantly renewed. “He is a public figure, there are people who will be moved by it, others will not. It’s the artistic approach behind that that needs to be raised. The difference is perhaps in the fact that she had a tragic death, that she is an icon of fragility. We have a greater affect,” concludes Alexandre Samson.

Tribute or outrage?

Without heir, the intellectual property of the star had returned at the time of his death to Lee Strasberg, his mentor, then to his wife whom she had never met. In 2011, his brand and his image were sold to Authentic Brands Group for an estimated sum of between 20 and 30 million dollars. A fruitful investment since Marilyn Monroe was elected by Forbes in 2020 as the 13th richest deceased personality in the world with 8 million dollars in income. A figure that fluctuates (she was eighth in the ranking in 2019) and should increase with the release of “Blonde”. The company, adept at managing the assets of dead celebrities like Bob Marley, is then able to collaborate on the most surprising and sometimes disturbing projects.

In the age of on-stage holograms, deceased stars never die out and are endlessly replicated. A reality demonstrated by a Chinese magazine: On the occasion of what would have been his 96th birthday, the 1^er June 2022, CR Fashion Book China has chosen to digitally recreate Marilyn Monroe wearing the outfits of today’s designers. From Balmain to Miu Miu via Fendi, she wears her outfits with such realism that you almost believe it. Marilyn wasn’t brought back to life, she was recreated as the perfect muse of a 21st century that she never actually knew.

From cinema to fashion galas, it is a Marilyn Monroe frozen in her eternal youth who rises from her rank as a 20th century icon to enter the 21st. Despite herself, and without ever taking a ride.

A digitally reimagined Marilyn Monroe is on the lastest cover of CR Fashion Book China. Carine Roitfeld worked closely with Monroe’s estate to imagine what she might look like in some of today’s fashion. pic.twitter.com/LKY2ofxuac

— Couture is Beyond (@CoutureIsBeyond) June 21, 2022