The Stereotypes That Overshadow Marilyn Monroe

The stereotypes that overshadow Marilyn Monroe, kind of disgust me. I’m not writing this professionally, but from an appreciation of my ancestors and the lives they lived. Marilyn Monroe may not share my skin tone, but she needs to be acknowledged among the black community instead of the constant ridicule.
What prompted this paper was a picture that said “Dorothy Dandridge over Marilyn Monroe”, now I love my history and I love my people and Dandridge is up there as one of my favorite people, but I don’t think it’s fair to shun and belittle a woman who celebrated women of color when it wasn’t popular especially when she, herself, celebrated Dandridge.

Now many people say, “Well, black women celebrate and know more of Monroe than Dandridge! It’s not fair!” and I totally agree. But at what fault is that of Monroe and for her to be hated? She can’t help she was a sex symbol and was white, at no fault of her own is her face being plastered on everything tangible. I can probably guarantee she wouldn’t care either way. Marilyn suffered from depression and was insecure; she didn’t believe in what people wanted her to be. She knew her calling was to be more than a sex symbol and expressed it. She felt the constant battle of being what Hollywood wanted her to be and rather
Sexy and she wore it well. I can’t remember the first time I heard about Norma Jean, aka Marilyn Monroe, but I see her face everywhere. I took in an interest in her in my teens, who is this white woman that sung “Happy Birthday” so sexually to my President Kennedy?! Who was this woman that took stunning pictures and seemed so confident? Well, I come to know she was insecure, shy, and struggled with her success, man, she sounded a little like me. Her skin tone was a little different, but does it matter when seeing yourself in someone? Monroe, like Dandridge, was a sex symbol. She was breathtaking and took Hollywood by storm. She represented “New Hollywood”, the sexy, provocative