1950's Beauty Icon: Marilyn Monroe

The chapter, From Rosie to Lucy, by James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, is about how the feminine mystique changed drastically from the era of WWII to the era of the baby boom. The shift was attributed to men’s influence on the women through fashion trends, magazines, and TV shows. The main purpose of the chapter is to show that the propaganda through TV and society affected individuals, and more specifically the feminine mystique.

In the late 1950’s, Warhol began to have the interest in painting. He painted his first well-known paintings, which was based on comics, and ads he found in 1961. The next year the big spots lights came on and he had his big introduction on the Campbell’s Soup Can series, which changed him completely. Shortly after, Warhol got the inspiration and started working on a large variety of movie star portraits, including Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and the biggest of all Marilyn Monroe. Using screen-printing process, and knowing that Marilyn was one of the biggest deaths in a while, he decided to take that for granted and come up with this marvilent idea to make him go viral.

Another area in which women made changes was with their appearance. Women used their attire and style to show an independence, a certain freedom in which they alone had control. Starting with the “Gibson Girl”, women dressed in long, slim dresses, freeing themselves of the poufy petticoats of yore. Women started wearing shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles, leading to “Flapper Jane”. “Women started wearing “less” clothing, shorter dresses, cutting off their hair, and just being more “sensual” than normal”, (Bliven, 1925).

One may ask themselves," Who would I adore having dinner with if I only had the opportunity to do so?" Well, I can honestly say, without a doubt, I know. Marilyn Monroe's motto,"Beauty is imperfections" continues to inspire women even in today's society. Which in return makes her a favorable dinner partner.

Furthermore, in spite of women gaining independence they started to shock society by their rebellious fashion styles and attitudes. Their rebellious attitudes were shown mainly through fashion choices: hemlines got raised, more jewelry became worn, makeup got heavier and hair became shorter.1 According to the 1920’s Vanity Fair, these magazines allowed people to stay updated on Women’s Suffrage and fashion ideas. In the light of, 1920’s Vanity Fair, many of the images shown were of women’s fashion which consisted of ‘Flappers’ who were the progressive, sexually liberated woman of the 1920’s.45

In a terrible turn of circumstances on the early morning of August 5, 1962, 36-year-old Marilyn died in her sleep at her Brentwood, California home with the phone attached to her hand. Rumors speculate of an overdose or intentionally killing herself. There was also speculation and gossip of having an affair with John F Kennedy and that she was about to go public with what she knew about JFK and Bobbi Kennedy. Also that she was murdered by 'government agents' to safeguard the president. Another conspiracy incident was that Marilyn was killed by the mafia as punishment to the Kennedy's for their attacks on them, and to expose Kennedy's many love affairs. Now with all the aspects of her death, Marilyn had plans to work on new movies and a possible

Lipsticks, eye-shadows, mascaras, and pan-sticks, all cosmetic breakthroughs of the 1910s, were now on the vanities and in handbags all over the world. Women of the roaring 20’s were the first to create an artificial face with bold smokey eyes, thin brows, rouge, painted nails, ruby lips and a ghostly

To feel valued while being pressured by both men and other women, women have the newest trend, like owning a nice Stanley Cup or wearing the newest Chanel or Louis Vuitton. This changing of the dolls is a nearly identical showing of how social standards can affect women's appearance and how they change themselves to fit this social

Though out the years fashion has changed in different variety of ways in the 1920s by giving women the ability to change the way they act and look. “1920's

There are various hairstyles for women in the 1950s that happened to be super trendy, that went from short to long, but a few of them happened to stand out and be the most popular hairstyles to me in that time period. One of the most famous haircuts was the Short and Curly haircut, lots of female singers and actresses like Marilyn Monroe carried on this hairstyle. It was perfectly curled and a slight version of the bouffant hairstyle. The Bouffant was a dramatic hairstyle, they would backcomb their hair and use a bit of hairspray to make sure it had volume. The famous American pop singer, Connie Francis had this famous hairstyle.

(pg.505) With this pressure, I feel that women were not pushing too many boundaries, and safely staying within the single acceptable standard at the time. However, by the 1920’s, the standards were more relaxed, and the now male dominated industry was booming with sales increasing by 400 percent. (pg.505) During this era and well past the 1940’s, cosmetic marketing was not just focusing on the advertisement of the products but also an “idealized beauty that emphasized youth and sexuality”. (pg.505) The primary way that agencies illustrated this “idealized beauty” was by setting the standard with Hollywood’s starlets as the models that would define that specific look. As the Primary Source article stated, “Cosmetics ads used Hollywood stars to promote their products, with the promise that ordinary women could be as glamorous as the women they saw on the screen”.

In the 1950s, excessively feminine silhouettes were celebrated thus accentuating curves, full bosoms and narrow waists was a prevailing way for women to dress. Nevertheless, with her sphere of influence on women, Audrey Hepburn introduced an alternative to this limited standard of how women—through various aspects of dressing and behaving—should be (Keogh 1). Some of the popular stars who eventually became sex symbols in the period were Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Grace Kelly. Hepburn’s physique however, was totally different from these women. She did not have a big bosom or a bottom. She was not curvy. Unlike Audrey Hepburn’s

A more unisex look symbolized the decreasing barrier of inequality between men and women. Women’s lives were finally eased not only in terms of fashion, but it also created a more independent, strong image. No longer were women limited to styles men preferred; they could express their style through

These changes of the 1920s have led fashion in modern time away from the classic conservative look to the more common risqué look. The hairstyle changes, newly founded makeup and clothing changes led women throughout time to take on freedom in their look. Women took these postwar styles and used them as a way to express their own freedoms and have control over how they looked and acted. The women of the 1920s have forever changed fashion and women’s

When it comes to stardom, the average people of today will try to think of a quick fix to the spotlight. One of my favorite sayings is “use what you got to get what you want”; the easiest thing would be your looks. We do however; live in the era where sexiness seems to be more important than brains. Now there are a few different ways to use this technique: you can be so prepossessing that everyone just gives you what you want and you don’t have to work for a thing or use your sexuality to creep your way to the top. In our case we’ll use Marilyn Monroe for example, who used what she had to get to the highest level of stardom.