At a connotative level, however, her cosmetic and artificial expression in her photograph also holds an element of masquerade. Her image creates a marvel that captures the eye and distracts it from what was hidden underneath, bolstering her image as ‘the luscious, undulating brainless female’ (Victor 1999). Fetishising Monroe’s photograph deflects attention from female 'lack' and changes her from a dangerous figure into a reassuring object of flawless beauty.
There are some aspects of an image that we think of as non-representational, actually function as symbolic signs and often carry connotative meanings; for example pink for femaleness and black for evil. Applying that concept to this image, Monroe gives her own illustration of colour. The whiteness of her fair complexion represents beauty in contrast with other screen goddesses and icons of sexuality that had a similar non-coded iconographic message, unleashing the racialisation of sexuality and visual pleasure of the 1950’s.
Born on June 1st, 1926, Monroe had a tragic childhood. Her father bludgeoned to death and her mother was admitted to a metal institution. Monroe looked at movies as a great source of education and escape for her as a teenager. Her teenage pastime triggered her desire to become a famous actress. Monroe was lucky enough to be spotted by a professional photographer and armed with her portfolio of pictures; she got into movies with bit parts. Unfortunately, she made no headway. Out of work and hungry, she posed nude for a calendar in 1949, which helped spark off her career and launching her image as a sex symbol, a key signifier. Both her dreams and desperation can be connoted from this image – her childishly innocent blank expression and her sexual appeal that could unhitch the suspenders of even the most obdurate men.
The film, Niagara (1953) helps take us to another connotative level of Monroe. In this film that boosted her popularity, she was described as sensational. The film accentuated the sensual undertone, so long apparent in her personality, and capitalised heavily on her sex appeal. She gave the kind of ‘serpentine performance that made the audience hate her while admiring her’ (Larry 1995), a connotative message that can be directly identified from her image. She was the envy of many women but at the same time, the animosity of many others. She continued to specialise in the genre in which people liked her best; double entendre comedy as what she represented in this photograph - the seductive, naive blonde.
Monroe was persona non grata with producers, directors and co-stars. During productions she was either ill, very late, or absent. She was unreasonably un-cooperative, and ‘even the simplest scene had to be done over 30 times to get it right’ (Victor 1999). Despite her limitations as an actress, her sex-appeal that is adherent in this image, was so potent it transcended her shortcomings; a view from a mythical level. For example, the Seven Year Itch (1954) was famous only for the subway grating sequence in which Monroe’s skirt blows up in a gust of wind. In 1959, she made Some Like It Hot. In this film too, she was only remembered for her trashy moves. Her short but sensual blondish locks in this photograph could well represent her scandalous image. Monroe was an epitome of the dumb blonde, a stereotype myth that has lasted till today.
The expression on her face also connotes that was that she was a woman’s beauty with a child’s mind. ‘Nearing her end, success went to her head, thus damaging her judgment’ (Larry 1995). The mistakes that she soon plunged into pulled her into the abyss of despair, booze, drugs and men. She could see no way out of her morass of disaster and with her double personality; she was the architect of her own doom. Through these events, her photograph could easily associate her with her melancholy, multiple affairs and eventually death; a drug overdose took her life shortly after Fox fired her from the production of Something’s Got to Give (1962).
The inexorable myth of Marilyn Monroe leaps into every new year, making her images a greatest symbol of femininity, a consensus that is still generally conceded to this day. Even though the public rarely dwells on the plaudits of yesteryear, her name and images remains undiminished, turning her unprecedented life, into an everlasting legend.
Bibliography:
Larry, L. (1995). A Guide to American Crime Films of the Forties and Fifties. New York, Greenwood Press.
Smith, C. (1964). Elements of Semiology. New York, Hill and Wang.
Victor, D. (1999). The Marilyn Encyclopedia. New York, Overlook Press.
Media Representation and Analysis
A Semiotic Analysis of Marilyn Monroe
By Dzuraiha Mohd (04506)
Lecturers: Dr Joelle Vandermensbrugghe and Dr Nooshin Guitoo
