Monday 15 February 2010

How Bruce Lee and Marilyn Monroe were alike

Bruce Lee and Marilyn Monroe both broke the mold of Hollywood and fought against traditional stereotypes while raising the bar higher.

Bruce Lee forever broke the image of the subservient non-white/chinese who was usually depicted as foolish, cowardly, grovelling and dependent. Lee beat white men with a better technique and philosophy. He was smaller, fiercer and more righteous than the Hollywood cowboys and plastic stars. In the world of men, he was a legend by 30, a hero beyond his time - there can never be another martial artist like him in the movies.
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Marilyn Monroe fought the image of a 'blonde bimbo' for years, a traditional hollywood stereotype of a helpless, silly, easy, dependent, low-IQ-but-chirpy woman. Most of her scripts included the line "I'm not very bright".

At the peak of her fame, she walked away. She changed her hair colour to red, started her own company, moved to New York to train in the famous Artist Studio and married an intellectual. She only came back after several miscarriages and a failed marriage, and only with directorial choice to Hollywood.

She always played the helpless role sarcastically to perfection as a platinum airhead (most women can see the exaggerated pained artifice). It protected her spirit, but she wanted the world to want the real woman she was - ambitious, intelligent, shrewd and courageous. She epitomized blondeness to the extent that there can never be a blonder 'bimbo' than her in the movies (for all the men who were taken in: guys, she was born brunette.:).

Both had remarkable bodies that let them down, as both died mysteriously very young.

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