How this myth got started isn’t exactly known. One possible contributing factor to this myth was Marilyn Monroe’s atypical extreme hour glass shape.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Marilyn Monroe was Not Even Close to a Size 12-16
How this myth got started isn’t exactly known. One possible contributing factor to this myth was Marilyn Monroe’s atypical extreme hour glass shape.
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I really dislike these body image articles when pertaining to celebrities, especially those that pertain to celebrities from so long ago that they aren’t even able to be side-by-side comparable to. I think worrying about body image is something that people often pout into the aesthetic category and really should be placing in the fitness and well-being category. Obviously, Marylin Monroe wasn’t a Nike model and didn’t have an intense exercise regimen, her body shape was how her body was shaped - and that’s it. The other main reason I don’t like the celebrity comparison articles is because celebrities can more easily afford an above average lifestyle and that the average lifestyle has tanked in health-quality over the decades. It is now so much easier and accessible to have fast food and not cook or even eat not full meals, while celebrities can have anything on their beck and call - even trainers who keep them in line, making celebrities a horrible baseline for comparison.
I first was reading this article thinking that is was going to be an excuse that Marilyn was a bigger women so it's ok to look bigger. I do agree with showing off your curves if you have it, but this shouldn't help increase the obesity in the country. People should get up, get out, and go play or at least include some type of activity in their life. But when I further read this article then I realized that it was pointing out she was bigger, but the wasn't huge. She's probably a size 4-6 and not a 12-16 in our world. Yes, it's not a size 0 but it's not a huge size. Women need to realize that if they are unhealthy then they should try to fix that instead of making excuses that it's ok. It's possible to do. Anyone can do it, it just takes great skill and determination.
The truth about Marilyn's size only proves that beauty standards have been, and perhaps always will be, skewed and hurtful to the thousands of women who try to follow them. Marilyn Monroe was an anomaly of a woman, and I think we can make a parallel with some of the women we see in Hollwood today, like Angelina Jolie or even Jennifer Lawrence. They are toted around as the figures of the perfect girl, though I think what the media doesn't understand is that there cannot and should not be a standard for beauty in the global world we live in. We should learn and find what is beautiful for ourselves rather than it being forced upon us by people who don't give a shit what happens to us or not. I don't blame Marilyn for the myth surrounding her figure. It's not her fault that Hollywood made her into the icon that we see her as today. Hollywood is what turned her into the sad, lonely person we know happened at the end of her life.
It's funny that there is all this ego-boosting about Marilyn Monroe's size in comparison to normal women, when that is exactly what vanity sizing was designed to do. Half of marketing is making you feel bad about yourself so you be something to improve, and the other half is dedicated to making you feel good about the purchases you've made. For example, the reason why large french fries orders are available at McDonalds is because the people working there didn't want people to feel bad about getting too orders. The clothing industry works the same way. No one wants to not fit into the small sizes, so vanity sizing exists so that larger women that they fit into smaller sizes, boosting their self confidence and convincing them to buy. It is a warped mind game designed to inflate ego just enough to keep you coming back for more. Marilyn was exceptional, and very few people can look like that. Trying to convince someone that her figure is any more attainable than those of models today isn't body positive. It's just a new form of unrealistic expectations.
I think that if anything is skewing body image amongst women today, it is the idea of an average size. Every woman is a different shape and size, and while they can be put into broader groups according to the clothing sizes they fit into, it makes no sense to judge according to those standards. This is especially true in the United States where those sizes fluctuate so dramatically. I don’t think it matters whether Marylyn Monroe wore a size twelve or a size two in modern times because chances are if she walked up the street to another clothing store her size would be entirely different. I know that it is foolish to hope that people won’t use these standards to judge themselves or others because the culture we live in demands that we care about size, but I hope that at some point soon everyone realizes how arbitrary clothing sizes truly are.
I always grew up hearing Marilyn Monroe was a very interesting human being and considered a beauty icon of her time but died far too young. The thought that she was the average size of a women today was a myth I had never come across but it does speak wonders to our beauty culture today. Growing up with magazines and Photoshop and constantly being bombarded with the message that the images of women in the media I am being exposed to everyday is unrealistic and unhealthy is just the norm and that is honestly terrifying. We shouldn’t be living in a world where people are taught to think so poorly of their natural shape and be told that they need to change and be thin to find love. The thought that the message of success in life and the pursuit of true happiness is from finding love is our first mistake. We need to be educating the young minds of tomorrow that the way to find true happiness and success in life is finding the love of oneself because only then can nothing and no one stop you from achieving your goals.
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