Mathis

=Marilyn Monroe= Marilyn Monroe was an actress from the 1950s. She has been in films such as //Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, Niagara//, and many more.

=**Allan Johnson's "Where Are We?"**= The four core patriarchal are shown in Marilyn’s life. In Allen Johnson’s article it states that “male dominance creates power differences between men and women”. When Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio, Joe wanted Marilyn to quit her career as an actress. This shows that Joe thought he was superior to Marilyn and thought that he had every right to tell her what to do. He wanted Marilyn to be a typical housewife. He also got jealous over all the attention that Marilyn received from other men. However, Marilyn loved being an actress and therefore didn’t quit her career. She married Jim Dougherty when she was 16, but they got a divorce. Marilyn only married him out of convenience. She was living in a foster home and wanted to get out and marriage was the answer. In this situation Jim is superior to Marilyn because he is rescuing her. He is the supporter of their relationship. He is the only reason that she will be able to get out of the foster home and she is counting on him to marry her. Women are often looked at as sex symbols and Marilyn was no exception to this. Marilyn was actually born with the name Norma Jeane Mortenson but then changed her name to Marilyn Monroe and died her name blonde when she signed her first movie contract. This is probably due to the fact that the “ideal women” in a man’s eyes is blonde, or that she would be more attractive blonde.
 * Male Dominance**
 * Male Identified**

Marilyn Monroe always had a man in her life. She married Jim Dougherty when she was 16, but they got a divorce a few months later. And then 7 years later she married Joe DiMaggio only to divorce him after a few months. So whether she was dating or marrying a man, none the less there was always a man involved in her life. I think she needed a man in her life to feel wanted or appreciated which is something she never felt as a child. In Marilyn’s marriage to Joe DiMaggio, Joe tried to control Marilyn. Joe wanted Marilyn to quit being an actress so that she could be a housewife. Joe felt that he was superior to Marilyn and as a result could control what she did.
 * Male Centered**
 * Obsession With Control**

2/19/10 **Parson’s “Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender-Appropriate Behavior” ** //The Seven Year Itch //is about a married man, Richard Sherman, who sends his wife and son away on a vacation for the summer while he stays behind to work. His over-active imagination goes into overdrive when beautiful blonde moves in upstairs. One night he invites her down for a drink and along the days that they spend together he is tempted by her. But he begins to miss his family and goes to meet them.

Though //The Seven Year Itch// is not a fairytale, it shows some of the points that Parson discusses in her article. One thing that the movie shows is gender-appropriate behavior. During the summer in New York it gets so hot that men send their families to the country to escape the heat, but the men stay behind to work. This also shows patriarchy. The men are supporting their family, while the women and children go on a vacation.

The movie also shows that women’s value lie in men’s desire for them. All the women in this movie were all dolled up. They would wear pretty dresses, heels, and makeup. The women dress this way so men will find them attractive and it works. Marilyn Monroe’s character was always dressed in that way and men were throwing themselves at her and asking her to marry them. Also, Parson’s says that women are the object of a man’s desire, which is exactly what Marilyn’s Character was for Mr. Sherman. She was very beautiful and Mr. Sherman wanted nothing more than to kiss her.

In most fairytales the women are portrayed as weak, submissive, dependent, and self-sacrificing and men are portrayed as powerful, active, and dominant. In //The Seven Year Itch// this role is somewhat reversed. Mr. Sherman is the weak and submissive one. When his wife was leaving for the country she told him not to smoke or drink alcohol and to eat healthy. And even though his wife was not around watching him he did listen to her, in the beginning. He wasn’t smoking or drinking and he even went as far as going to a vegetarian restaurant. But then when he starts spending time with Marilyn’s character he goes back to his old habits. And when Marilyn’s character stays the night at Mr. Sherman’s because he has air conditioning, Mr. Sherman imagines that his wife finds out and she comes back to the city and shoots him. This shows that Mrs. Sherman has the upper hand, so to speak, in their relationship which contradicts the patriarchal system.

=2/18/10=

=Kelly Schrum – “Teena Means Business”= =In the movie “Some Like it Hot” 2 musicians witness a gang shooting and get on a train traveling to Florida disguised as women, Josephine and Daphne, and become 2 new members of an all girl jazz band. Marilyn’s character then falls for Josephine and an ancient playboy falls for Daphne.= =This movie shares a couple of ideologies with the 1950’s Seventeen Magazine. In this movie there is an emphasis on appearance. All the girls in the movie wear dresses throughout the movie, including the men disguised as women. They also wear lipstick and mascara and eyeliner and eye shadow. Which was made to enhance a girl’s appearance. Even when going to bed the girls look as if they could be going out on the town. Even their pajamas have an emphasis on appearance. They wear cute little night gowns, that are lace and short and would be attractive to men. The conductor of the girls’ jazz band wears a big bow in her hair, and she also wears a feather trimmed silk robe. So even when the girls are going to bed, they seem to be dressed to impress.= =Also this movie seems to put a limit on the careers women have. In the start of the movie it shows women dancing in a secret club, with men sitting around tables drinking. In this sense women are entertainment for the men. Another career that the women in this movie have is musicians. But it doesn’t show any jobs where women would need an excessive amount of knowledge and lots of schooling to do.=

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==In this article Zipes talks about “the ordinary becomes the extraordinary”. Marilyn Monroe fits into this mold. She definitely had a ‘rags to riches’ life like J.K. Rowling. She was an orphan that was then adopted and then married very young. She then divorced and signed a movie contract and became an actress, and is now seen as a ‘sex symbol’.==

==Also like the Harry Potter phenomenon, Marilyn Monroe has merchandise with her face on it. So even almost 50 years after her tragic death, you can still find Marilyn wallets and shirts, even figurines of her infamous dress blowing scene from “The Seven Year Itch”.==

==In the article, Zipes discusses that “for anything to become a phenomenon, it must be conventional…it must conform to the standards of exception set by the mass media and promoted by the culture industry in general”. I think that is precisely the reason Marilyn became such a well known actress. There is no denying that she is beautiful and that is why she made it so far. Beauty can get you pretty far in life and that applies to Marilyn, although she also had talent to back up her looks.==

==Marilyn’s movie, “Seven Year Itch”, is dominated by male characters. There are female characters mentioned but the main characters were predominately male. And even the female characters that are mentioned are sent away for vacation while the men remained in the city for work; so even when there are females involved, they are treated subordinately to the males. Marilyn is the lead female role and is a sort of the typical blond. She is very carefree about things, never taking things too seriously. An example of this is when Marilyn’s character is talking about how it was so hot that she decided to sleep in the bath tub filled with water. However, the faucet kept dripping so she stuck her toe up the faucet and got it stuck. She then had to call the plumber to help her. She then goes on to explain how embarrassing that was because she didn’t have any polish on her toes. I thought that was really ridiculous that she thought it was embarrassing that she didn’t have polish on her toes and not that she was naked in a bath tub with her toe stuck up the faucet.==

==In the article, Heilman and Donaldson discuss that girls are “portrayed as male fantasy sex objects able to seduce, beguile, and confuse males” (page 152). Marilyn’s character does just that to Mr. Sherman; she unknowingly seduces Mr. Sherman. In one scene, Marilyn’s character and Mr. Sherman were playing chopsticks on the piano and Mr. Sherman finds her irresistible and jumps on her and tries to kiss her but she resists and then she goes home. This relates to the quote because Marilyn’s character captivates men’s attention with her beauty and in “The Seven Year Itch” she is confusing Mr. Sherman’s feelings. He wants to be faithful to his wife but on the other hand, this beautiful blonde is tempting him. There is also the factor that Mr. Sherman’s wife could find out and that persuades him to go to the country and surprise his wife and son.== = = 4/25/10 Anti-Barbies – Sherrie A. Inness Inness talks in the article about who “anti-barbies…dolls that could teach American history, family values, and self-reliance”. And in “The Seven Year Itch”, Marilyn relies pretty heavily on her neighbor, Mr. Sherman. She even states that she “can’t even take care of a house plant.” She is always at his house for the company and because he has air conditioning. With all that in mind, Marilyn’s character isn’t self-reliant at all. She is constantly relying on other people in her life. It also says in the article that “Rowland wanted to move away from the Barbies that wore spiked heels, drove pink corvettes, and looked as if they belonged in a strip joint”. Now, in real life, Marilyn didn’t wear spiked heels and it didn’t look like she belonged in a strip joint (for the most part), but she wasn’t the best role model for young girls. She went through multiple divorces, posed for playboy, and she died of a probable overdose. She after all was considered a “sex goddess”, which I think is the exact opposite of what the American Girl dolls were trying to achieve. Marilyn was very sexualized by men and she knew it and sort of embraced it and used it to her advantage. In the article, Inness discusses politics of advocacy and politics of assent. The Politics of Advocacy in “The Seven Year Itch” is how every girl needs man in her life, that she is almost incomplete without one. Almost like a man defines a woman. Politics of Assent is that only heterosexual couples are accepted in society.

4/25/10 ** “It’s a Girl Thing”: Tough Female Action Figures in the Toy Store – Sherrie A. Inness ** Sherrie Inness states that “Barbie and her girlfriends are concerned about their next trip to the mall”. In “The Seven Year Itch”, though Marilyn’s character isn’t concerned about going shopping, she is concerned about her love life. She is talking with Mr. Sherman and she says that men are throwing themselves at her and always asking her to marry them. Although, she says she doesn’t want to get married, not yet anyways. “Barbie always seems to be preparing for a dream wedding or dream date”. In “Some Like it Hot”, Marilyn’s character says “I’m going to be 25, that’s a quarter of a century it makes a girl think about the future, like a husband.” That’s the only reason she’s worried about turning 25, not because of having a great job or anything, but because she doesn’t have a man in her life. This situation also relates to another quote from Inness: “Girls also learn about the importance of social relationships between men and women and of the significance of males”. Marilyn’s character could be totally content with her life without a man. But, like every stereotypical girl, she is concerned about finding a man to spend the rest of her life with.

==While I was watching “The Seven Year Itch”, I noticed that many of the comments that Lamb and Brown discussed in the article applied to this movie. One thing I noticed was that all of the women were dressed up. They were wearing dresses but they also had accessories. They had hats and gloves and a lot of the women were wearing pearls. Just as the women were wearing those outfits, the girls were too. I thought this would go along with the article when it says that “mom still has a big say in what clothes they wear” (page 28). This movie was made in 1950, and so I think it can be concluded that none of the girls would have any spending money to spend on clothes. Usually when kids get money they would spend it on toys or candy, not clothes. Therefore, the girls’ mothers would be the ones who would buy their clothes. And because of this, the mothers would have the final say on what is getting purchased.== ==The outfits that the girls’ wear in “The Seven Year Itch” resemble what their mothers wear. This is like the clothes that are seen in the stores today. Many of the clothing items that are found in the little girl section look as though they belong in the junior’s section. The movie was made in 1955 and because of this the styles are different. Girls’ clothes are much less promiscuous than what they are now days and there are also no glitter or sassy sayings on their shirts. However, girls are wearing pastel color dresses, and boys are wearing pants and a button down shirt, that is usually blue. This goes along with the article because it states that “typically, a little girl will be dressed in pink and frills, and a boy in blue with a sporty theme” (page 13).==

**Introduction – Kyra Gaunt**
==I found it extremely difficult to relate Marilyn Monroe to this article. However I did find something; in the article, Gaunt states that “black musical style and behavior are learned through oral-kinetic practices that not only teach an embodied discourse of black musical expression, but also inherently teach discourse about appropriate and transgressive gender and racial roles in African American communities” (page 2). This quote relates to the movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. In this movie, Marilyn’s character sings ‘Diamonds are a Girls’ Best Friend’. In the beginning of the song, she is surrounded by men holding out big paper hearts, which is made to symbolize the men giving Marilyn’s character their heart. She then sings no, no, no and hits them. The men then, shoot themselves in the head and Marilyn’s character then goes on to sing ‘Diamonds are a Girls’ Best Friend’. I think this shows that girls need diamonds and men to give them to you.==