
In the Spring fashion issue of NY Magazine, Lindsay Lohan is the cover girl and she recreates Marilyn's last photo shoot-- photographer Bert Stern and all. The photographs of MM were taken in 1962 and subsequently turned into a book containing 2,571 photographs of Marilyn Monroe. It took Marilyn all of 15 minutes to take her clothes off and the photographs have a rather strange quality because unlike today when celebrities go everywhere with an entourage the photos of "The Last Sitting" were done with just Stern and Monroe and if ever there was a "male gaze" these photgraphs exemplify it--they are a total view of what Marilyn had become by that time--nothing but a sexpot. Gone was the irony, the ability to use her sexuality in the service of her other talents (singing, acting, etc). She was now in the twilight of her life--she'd earned a bad rep in the stuido days because she'd been chastised by William Wilder for being late to the Some Like it Hot Set so her starlet days amounted to a blackball and she'd been through marriages and the Kennedys and she was at the end of her road and nothing was left but for her to use her sexuality to make people want her. Not unlike Britney Spears sans underwear, the flight to sexual provocateur is taken as a last ditch effort for these women (Monroe, Lohan, Spears) to stay in frot of the camera.
In the interview with Lohan that accompanies the photogaphs (the one reproduced here is a modest photo) Lohan says of Monroe, "Here is a woman who is giving herself to the public...She's saying, 'Look you've taken a lot from me, so why don't I give it you myself.' She's taking control back." And Amanda Fortini the writer of the text that accompanies the photos writes, " Like any tabloid veteran, Lohan understands the potency of a photograph, and that the best way to respond to a society that views you only as an image might just be on its own terms."
I disagree with that...I think Britney Spears was caught up in that, she continually tried to find a way to gain control or find some kind of solid ground by pushing the boundaries by appearing more and more provocative--yet in the end the sad images of her being ever more provocative and then lashing out at the paparazzi when the photographs were not received as she planned illustrate how she'd lost control of the whole process and for her clearly the best way to respond "to a society that views [her] only as an image" was definitely not on its own terms. She was a victim of the image factory as in my mind Lohan is as well. Lohan and Britney (especially) are reduced to selling sexuality and thinking that it is power when in point of fact it is a debased position--Lohan's not an actress, Spears is not a singer, neither is anything but a powerless sex symbol (which isn't to say all sex symbols are powerless or debased--some knowing choose to objectify themselves from places of power--Madonna, Angelia Jolie, Jennifer Garner are just a few examples).
Zooey Deschanel last year was quoted stating the following:"I'm scared for young women, because we're not necessarily progressing. "People think that it's good to use sex as power. They think that's new. Flaunting your body, going around half-naked and being sexy to get your way - it's so missing the point. "We're not even talking about the fact that women still don't have enough role in running the country." And she sees Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears as regressive rather than progressive.
And it is a question to ask--at what point are women in control of their sexuality and at what point does it become a last ditch effort to remain in front of the camera at any price? And something that is thrown out there when every other label "actress," "singer," "performer" has been taken away and as Lohan noted everything has been taken and instead of being in control Monroe and Lohan and Spears and I would add Paris Hilton and Tara Reid become nothing but centerfolds pandering to the lowest interests? And a good contrast here is someone like Madonna who always seems to project power in her sexuality, she's never seemed like a victim, never seemed like she was out of control and that her sexual images came from a place where it was "you've taken everything from me, now you may as well have this too..." Something to ponder...
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