Lois Banner: "Marilyn"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-02/lois-banner-marilyn
Marilyn Monroe is one of the most well-known American icons of the twentieth century. But did we really know her at all? A new book titled “Marilyn” reveals a deep and complicated woman full of contradiction. She was sensual but painfully insecure, devout but sexually uninhibited, disciplined but self-destructive, cerebral but naïf-like. Many of her complexities were rooted in her unstable childhood. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in a charity ward in Los Angeles. She grew up in eleven different foster homes, with a mother in a mental institution and a father she never knew. Diane talks with Author Lois Banner about Marilyn Monroe.
Guests
Lois Banner
professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California, co-founder of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and author of ten books, including "American Beauty."
Related Items
Photos Of Marilyn Monroe
Read An Excerpt
Excerpted from "Marilyn" by Lois Banner. Copyright © 2012 by Lois Banner. Reprinted by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
Comments
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Very interesting show! So glad to hear about this woman's strengths.Thanks to Diane Rehm and Professor Banner, two more examples of strong, successful women.
Monroe is so famous for an actress who never received an Oscar or was even nominated. I thought she had some excellent performances, like Bus stop, Some Like It Hot, Misfits and and a few others. Probably being a Playboy centerfold hurt her reputation as an actress.
Ms. Banner implied that Marilyn Monroe's abusive childhood typically leads to sexual behavior that is not "normal". She went on to list lesbianism as an example of such potential aberrant behavior. I would appreciate more sensitivity on the part of of Ms. Banner who's book is applauding Monroe as a pre-feminist icon. I am in academia like Ms. Banner as well and try to be very sensitive to how my statements can be interpreted or misconstrued by my students. I am sure as a gender studies professor, she has gay, bi, and transsexual students. I would like to add, I typically do enjoy and very much respect Diane Rehm's work as an interviewer.
marilyn was a talented beauty with a personal life that was a disaster, certainly not someone to be a role model. another book about how she was victimized is completely unnecessary.
I'm glad to hear that Marilyn stood up for Ella Fitzgerald in particular and equal rights in general. Clearly she was a thinking person, far stronger than the way she has been portrayed.
Dr. Banner's comment where she included "lesbianism" in a list of mental illnesses was most unfortunate. Surely this was unintended; especially coming from an academic professional committed to gender studies at the University of Southern California. Very surprising. Promoting this thinking creates problems for lesbian and bi-sexual women today.
I thought the first caller's question was side-stepped a bit and would have loved to hear more from both Diane and Ms. Banner about the country's obsession with Ms. Monroe. Why is it that there is a surge of interest in the star every few years? I wonder if the potential to profit from the nostalgia associated with the star isn't more to blame than her actual merits?
I am a faithful listener to this wonderful show, thank you so much for all of your hard work!
Was Marilyn murdered?
I have read that there were no drugs in her stomach at the autopsy, but there was a bruise on her lower back. It was speculated that her maid held her down with her knee and inserted a suppository and that is what killed her. Any truth in this?
I was interested to hear that Marilyn Monroe had been a great friend of Elia Kazan and then later announced that she was a Socialist. How did she reconcile those two facts?
I agree totally with Sabra. I was stunned when I heard this. I would like to see what studies she was referring to. Correlation does not equal causation. I also was confounded by some of her replies when Diane pressed her about the Robert Kennedy - Marilyn Monroe connection. I would have to conclude that Dr Booth is a chronicler not a social scientist based on her statements. There is a difference between eyewitness reports and gossip she does not seem to acknowledge. She became very defensive on this topic and had no strong evidence to support her innuendos. I am glad Diane pressed her on this. I doubt other interviewers have challenged her like that in the past. She mentioned something about mass hysteria for so many people to testify to Robert Kennedy's relationships with Marilyn. I couldn't agree more. No doubt hundreds of people in Hollywood knew all about it - just like there were hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at Yankee Stadium when Reggie hit his three homers in one game. I suspect there is a kind of mass hysteria where people actually believe they were there when they weren't and a kind where people really believe they saw something because everyone else did. But also, this was Hollywood... Everybody who was anybody had to be there and see what really was going on between Marilyn and Bobby.
Is it just me... or did anyone else come away from this interview feeling that Lois Banner took a lot of liberties and make some assumptions which on their face seem to be factually incorrect? 10 years to write a book - and it appears that she filled in gapping holes in the story with assumptions and "what-if's..." I was shocked by the comment regarding "lesbianism" and her thoughts regarding the identity of the person(s) who may have sexually abused Marilyn in her youth. There were more than a few times when asked by Diane how she came to the conclusions she was offering - she 'defaulted' to "Studies of people who have had this happen..." responses. To apply that standard to a text which is touted as a comprehensive biography of a public figure - especially regarding such types of subjects - is, at the very least deceiving.