Saturday, February 28, 2015
03/03/15 Reading Core Response #2
In Harris's essay on SID, one can still find some similarities in today's image-making of stars. Although nowadays, the trend is that stars show their candid sides more, the stars' images stay with the stars for a long time. Grace Kelly is still considered as an elegant actress who has become a queen of a monarchy, compared to her private life of several affairs. It is interesting to see the comparison between Monroe and Kelly in Harris's essay since they might be considered as women in opposite ends of the spectrum of what is "feminine." While Kelly can be seen as more conservative in showing her femininity, Monroe can be considered as a woman who is liberating her own body. If considering Mulvey's text though, Monroe's image can be seen problematic since she is actively objectifying her own body. In Dyer's discussion on Monroe and her sexuality, Monroe is an example of Hollywood and the society's interest in sex (note that it is still a heteronormal society where woman's sexuality was designed for male viewers, whereas man's sexuality like Valentino--although he is an actor prominent from the 20s--was designed for female viewers). I personally think Monroe has certainly made an impact in American culture, especially in creating her image as a "blonde bombshell". Compared to other blonde characters from the past, such as Hitchcock's infamous female characters, her image is powerful. As a fine arts student, I could not help but think of Warhol's Monroe paintings while reading both texts. Actually, Warhol's Monroe paintings can be interpreted as a comment on image. By laying out the famous image of Monroe's portrait repetitiously, he purposefully dulls down her image as the blonde bombshell since repetition of a visual are considered as redundant. Finally, on the Hepburn essay by Brown, it was interesting to see how her rise to stardom became successful since usually, I would just admire her rather than think of the cultural and societal background of Hepburn's time. I love how the essay mentions Givenchy and Hepburn's relationship. One can see this play between stars as muse for fashion designers still existing today. Her ambiguous but unique image has benefited her to gain various roles in movies.
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Hi Ha Kyung, I find your post to be very insightful, particularly in your comparison to Warhol's depiction of Monroe in his 1962 Marilyn Diptych. I too have Warhol's image ingrained in my mind whenever I think of the late blonde bombshell. The deterioration of her image after incessant repetition really speaks to the helplessness that she embodied in her star persona. As Dyer points out in Heavenly Bodies, Monroe's explosive sexuality was balanced with an air of vulnerability. She was depicted as needing a man to take care of her in order to make her sexuality less threatening to male audiences. We will never truly know what the real Marilyn was like in person. Perhaps she wasn't as clueless nor as naive and vulnerable as depicted. I think Warhol speaks to this fact by showing the machinery behind Marilyn's persona. By repeating her image over and over, Warhol shows how the idea of Marilyn was something created and meant to be consumed (just like how Dyer claims stars to be manufactured) in mass appeal. His Marilyn Diptych characterizes a Monroe that wasn't in complete control of her blazing star power, suggesting that such vulnerability was actually what led to her early death. I like how you point out that the dulling of her image shows a redundancy of her representation in media. I feel like the idea that fame killed Monroe has become a big part of her persona after death and influences the way we watch her films today. Thank you for the post! I'm glad to have found someone else who can't separate Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Ha Kyung's summary on how Hollywood has treated and managed Kelly and Monroe's different personas for publicity. Especially how their publicists carefully disseminated their images from their family background, as if they were born to be like the image they gave to the public later on. Harris compares Kelly and Monroe as the ideal mate vs. playmate, this is exactly in line with the images in their fans' minds. What is more, the lady image of Grace Kelly, her elegance, wealth, and gentle... contrasts with Marilyn Monroe's naive, blonde and sexy image very much that I found one quote from Harris so appropriate and satiric: "It was as if the absence of family had rendered her (Monroe) attainable, while the Kellys of Philadelphia were inculcating their Grace with the tenets of propriety and respectability". How true! The influence their images have on public still apply to today's society. This past summer, I can recall how many audiences have walked in to cinemas and watch Grace of Monaco stars by Nicole Kidman. The Hermes bag that named after Grace has been an unsurpassed legendary. People see Monroe as goddess, but people advocate Kelly, her hard-work and independent as role model for modern women.
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