GAYLETTER

You know, I think when I first took Marilyn Monroe seriously was when My Week With Marilyn was coming out in 2011 and Michelle Williams was on the cover of Vogue dressed as Monroe herself. I was gay and in high school, so I really thought American Vogue was the end-all be-all, but shade aside, many of my interests came about from flipping through Anna’s pages pre-doing-everything-at-Condé Nast. For example, in Vogue is where I first learned that beyond the beauty, Marilyn Monroe desperately wanted to be an incredible actress. Being a theater kid myself, I thought that fact to be depressing. I wondered why no one ever spoke about her go-getter attitude, only of her beauty. I found the former so much more appealing. Monroe studied method acting at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and his wife Paula. She often cried when she couldn’t get a monologue, or scene right.

I feel that in Monroe’s case, attaching the word icon to her for an introductory label smears over a lot of who she was. Since her death, Monroe’s image is arguably the most recognizable, yet no one cares about her story. Women just want to look like her. Men just want to touch her breasts.

Thank god for Whoopi Goldberg. Seriously.  She’s curated a new exhibit at New Jersey’s cultural center Mana Contemporary, showcasing the interiority of Monroe the person; not the iconic face. “The image of Marilyn Monroe the icon endures and strengthens as time goes by, but her personal life remains a mystery,’ says Whoopi Goldberg. ‘With this exhibition I wanted to show a glimpse of the woman behind the icon using, before now, never-before-seen images, some of her personal writings, and some pieces of her artwork.”

“This show presents a different side to the legendary actress: behind the glamour was a vulnerable, sensitive, and ambitious young woman who spent time writing poems and diary entries to self-analyze, understand, and reassure herself. In these writings, she craves love and friendship, and battles with ongoing pain, heartbreak, and disappointment. She attempts to understand the world on her terms, tries to accept her insecurities and fears, and to become a better artist.”

Weegee, Marilyn Monroe, ca. 1957.

The show runs from Sept. 25th through Oct. 22nd. Be sure to check it out! GAYLETTER is planning a daycation to New Jersey so we can too.