posted
I watched the Seven Year Itch last night/this morning, and the making of featurette said that it was this movie that sealed Marilyn's stardom and gave her to power to approve scripts and directors. It is also the movie that led to break up of her marriage when, during the filming of the scandalous subway scene, Joe DiMaggio realized that when you marry a sweet girl who is famous for sex, you get a sweet wife who continues to be famous for sex.
I now have a few questions/observations:
1. Why on earth do people think they can marry/capture the whirlwind? If you love someone because they are a lorelei, you can't be offended when they continue to be a lorelei. Someone who is flirty and exciting will most likely continue to be flirty and exciting. This is my standard rant that if you want a calm, retiring, demure wife, you have to pick a calm, retiring, demure girl. You can't pick someone thrilling and then get upset when they act like themselves.
2. I think I have figured out why the bombshell has to be dumb. She has to gorgeous enough to tempt the guy, but not smart to realize that's what she's doing. If she knows the effect she's creating by peeking over the plants with nothing on but the radio, that makes the guy not a daring Don Juan but a conquest. That explains the terror of "what if someone found out" - that's only explainable if he considers that the girl hasn't found out.
From the movie:
quote:They are playing chopsticks on the piano.
Marilyn: Don't stop! Why'd you stop? Guy: You know why. Marilyn: Why? Guy: Because now I'm going to take you in my arms and kiss you, very quickly, and very hard. Marilyn: Hey, wait a minute!
He grabs her and they fall off the piano bench.
Marilyn: What happened? I seem to have lost track. Guy: I don't know. This never happened to me before. Marilyn: Really? It happens to me all the time.
Okay, she's either of sub-normal intelligence or that idiotic guy is getting played. Getting played doesn't fit in with the rest of the fantasy that movie is, so she has to be portrayed as dumb. It's the only way the fantasy works.
Of course, at the end of the movie, the girl gets free use of the apartment with the air conditioning, so I guess it was a worthwhile trade for her.
I'm not really declaring the end of civlization or anything. I think people (including me) are idiots about all sorts of things, and I don't see this kind of game ending anytime soon. It's part of the history of civilization, so if some guy wants to get played like a cheap tamborine, I guess that's his decision. I AM incredibly beholden to those who did the work that means that I don't have to pretend to be Marilyn Monroe to be considered a worthy use of oxygen, and for that I am grateful.
[ October 09, 2004, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: Javert Hugo ]
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posted
I really hated The Seven Year Itch. I think it perpetuated a lot of sterotypes of women.
I'm trying to decide whether it's OK for me to be angry over sterotypes when I know a lot of people for whom they are true.
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posted
I think I may be out of the activist phase - I'm not searching to abolish the stereotypes (mostly because I have no respect for and there for do not care about those who believe they are always true), but I do want to understand why they exist and why we/society/people think they are necessary.
[ October 09, 2004, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Javert Hugo ]
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posted
In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes I think that's the movie, you see what a silly little game that is that women play to catch the guy who shrivels over an intelligent girl. I, for one find intelligence to be sexy. I haven't seen the Seven Year Itch, but the Hawke movies I saw for a class were just great.
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posted
No comment? I'm torn between thinking I picked a horribly boring subject (but really - sex and Marilyn Monroe and intelligence - this should be catnip) and deciding that it was such a brilliant, definitive post that there is nothing to add.
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There's a difference between niavete, ignorance, and outright stupidity.
Playing the flirt is a dangerous game and I suspect that the people who succeed at it are not nearly as stupid as they may appear.
I find that most of the time that people worry about stereotypes, they are implying that this stuff needs to be dealt with because "other people" might be affected by it. They, themselves, are too intelligent to buy into that junk, but "other people" might be too stupid to realize it.
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posted
I agree that it takes a lot of intelligence to be a good flirt - and that they are never as dumb as they appear - or even dumb at all.
I heard once that the sign of a good con is when the conman doesn't have to leave town afterward. If anyone comments on someone being a flirt, then I suspect they are not doing it well.
I think my question/observation is WHY appearing to be dumb is an advantage in the situation.
posted
I can't help you there. I was raised by an intelligent woman and I find any sort of "playing dumb" so off-putting that I can't possibly see how any man would be attracted to it.
Maybe it's that the con artist has SUCH a low opinion of the victim's intelligence that she figures she has to stay below that imagined level in order to take her mark?
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posted
Who was it who said you'll never go broke underestimating someone's intelligence?
For whatever reason, Marilyn Monroe is a provocative icon. She was obviously miserable in it, and dying young sealed her fate, but that body-made-for-sin and mind-made-for-pancakes persona is still popular. I'm trying to figure out why...
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