The Netflix Marilyn Movie Is An Insult and Abomination

No, she didn't have an abortion or a threesome. It's all lies. Fiction.

Oct 03, 2022

Marilyn Monroe ballerina poster from Etsy

If you watched Blonde, the new Netflix “biopic” on Marilyn Monroe, you might think she had a threesome with Charlie Chaplin, Jr. and his friend.

Not once. Repeatedly.

Sorry. That didn’t happen.

The movie also showed Secret Service agents kidnapping her and bringing her to President Kennedy so he could rape her. Then they forced her to have an abortion to get rid of his child.

That didn’t happen, either.

They weren’t content to mess up portraying her adult life.

They also show her mother trying to drown her when she was seven. They pretend her mother hated her because her pregnancy made her father leave. Sorry. Wrong again. That didn’t happen, either.

At some point, you have to ask yourself… wtf is this, fiction?

Yes. Actually, it is.

The Netflix biopic “Blonde” is based on fiction

The root of the whole mess of misinformation is a book that was published 22 years ago. A fictional novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The author herself, has said repeatedly that the book is fiction.

Basically, Oates saw a photo of a young Norma Jeane and decided to make up a fictional novel using a real person.

She included all the right characters. The male co-star she calls “C” is Tony Curtis. Monroe’s husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller are referred to as the ex-athlete and the playwright.

But other than the people? The rest is all invented.

As she wrote on the copyright page, Blonde is not a biography of Monroe, or even a biographical novel that follows the historical facts of Monroe’s life. It’s a work of fiction, in which Oates “invented” the details of Marilyn Monroe’s life.

It’s a fiction novel. It’s made up. Invented. Fiction.

Not a bio pic.

Know how IMDB describes it? As “A fictionalized chronicle of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe.”

The elements of the film are all creative liberties with no historical evidence behind them. — The Mary Sue

The fetus scene makes me irrationally angry…

According to the movie, Marilyn decides to have an abortion so she can make a movie, but changes her mind at the last time. She’s crying and begging the doctor to stop. Too bad, so sad, the doctor won’t stop. He does the abortion anyway.

Later she gets pregnant again and that’s when it gets stupid. You get to see right up her wahoo and into her uterus where the fetus squeaks out an opinion about not wanting to be aborted like what she did “last time” she was pregnant.

Pro-lifers are pissed.

Planned Parenthood calls it anti-abortion propaganda.

When people were collectively losing their minds about that scene, know what the director had to say about it?

He said “Whatever. People like being offended.”

I don’t give a crap about any of that. Not like there’s any shortage of anti-abortion propaganda these days.

Know what makes me pissed?

It’s a slap in the face to the woman they’re pretending to portray.

“As film and TV shapes many people’s understanding of sexual and reproductive health, it’s critical these depictions accurately portray women’s real decisions and experiences.” — Planned Parenthood

Damn shame they didn’t bury her in that tutu…

Because I’m sure she’s spinning in her grave. Round and round like the ballerina in a little girl’s jewelry box.

See, Marilyn Monroe had endometriosis. It’s a debilitating condition that affects a woman’s ability to carry a child to term.

She miscarried in 1956, lost an ectopic pregnancy in 1957, then miscarried again in 1958. Because of endometriosis. She was devastated.

She wanted a child more than anything.

Repeatedly said she’d give up her career if she could have a child. Not that she should have to pick between a child and a career. But if she did, she’d haven chosen to have a child.

“If you gave her a choice between children and stardom, it would have been children. Without question.” — Milton Greene, Monroe’s confidante

Her inability to carry a pregnancy to term caused her such distress she was in counselling for years. Crying and asking what she did to “deserve” to have every pregnancy end too soon. Why wouldn’t God let her have a child? Why was God punishing her? That’s what she wanted to know.

Infertility was the root of her deepest pain.

So that abortion part? It’s not just fiction. It’s blasphemy. A slap in the face to her actual lived experience.

“One of the most famous sufferers from endometriosis was Marilyn Monroe. The condition was so severe it destroyed her marriages, her wish for children, her career and ultimately her life. “— National Library of Medicine

No, it isn’t a feminist film…

Oates, author of the fictional novel the movie was based on says it’s a “feminist” film. She thinks exposing “sexual predation” in Hollywood makes it a feminist movie and is astounded we don’t all see it that way.

She’s astounded that some people think the film exploits Monroe.

“Surprising that in a post #MeToo era the stark exposure of sexual predation in Hollywood has been interpreted as “exploitation.” — Joyce Carol Oates, Twitter

Well, Ms. Oates, the problem is that the market for female pain is inexhaustible. Pam & Tommy. Judy Garland. Princess Diana.

Marilyn Monroe.

Firstly, it’s financially rewarding. They get to use all the racy images that drew crowds to the woman in the first place.

Doesn’t much matter if it’s Pam Anderson or Marilyn Monroe. Poor exploited girl. Oh look — boobs and crotch shots.

Secondly, it’s all wrapped up in archaic patriarchal morals. Bad things happen to women who are promiscuous or powerful don'tcha know? Heaven forbid they’re both sexual and powerful. Wow, that’s almost a guarantee they end up alone and miserable. Tsk, tsk.

My personal breaking point was a POV shot from inside Marilyn’s vagina as she was having a forced abortion performed on her. — RogerEbert.com

Know what’s missing in the movie?

Marilyn Monroe was highly intelligent. An avid reader and writer who collected first editions of classic novels.

She was scrappy as hell. Campaigned against racism and launched Ella Fitzgerald’s career because some white dude didn’t want a black woman at his club. They were lifetime friends after that.

She formed her own production company to wrestle control out of the hands of men in a male dominated industry. In the 1950s, no less.

She was a brilliant negotiator who had just signed a 2 million dollar contract when she was found dead.

None of that is in the movie. In every scene, she’s either crying, topless, naked or being abused. Know what the director had to say about it?

He told interviewers her strengths didn’t interest him.

Monroe’s activism and her success wresting control from a male-dominated industry were “not so interesting to me.” — Blonde, Filmmaker Andrew Dominik

The tragic ending…

At the end of the movie, everything is blurred and fuzzy. Clearly, the drugs are taking effect. Marilyn sees her father surrounded by stars and heavenly lights. The man she’d supposedly been pining for her whole life.

Which is nonsense. She found her father. Once. He told her look, I have a wife and kids. Get lost. Call my lawyer. That was that.

And then while her little doggie watches, she falls on the bed and dies.

The movie ends with the camera focused on her legs for an uncomfortably long time, while melancholy music plays and the sky outside the window turns from night to day. It’s achingly sad.

Here’s the kicker.

They filmed that scene in Marilyn Monroe’s actual bedroom. Where she actually died. They even paid to reconstruct the wall to look exactly like it did when Marilyn was found dead in her bed at age 36.

Exploitation complete. Who cares if it’s true? Because, cha-chang.

Yeah. Sounds like a feminist movie to me.