Our society has always craved for fame. The beautiful people have been a huge part of everyday life in an average American household. One of the most famous is of course Marilyn Monroe. Miss Monroe was and continues to be one of the most famous sex-symbols of time. With social media, technology, and advertisement it is hard for a young woman to be confident. Marilyn Monroe suffered from all of the same fears as the modern young woman does today. If we look at how she handled all of these challenges hopefully we can all start making an impact on how young women are perceived.
It is a very difficult time to be a young woman in today’s modern world; looking at Monroe’s life we can see how similar it is to be a normal woman in today’s society and an international sex-symbol. The majority of people are cruel, especially if they believe they are anonymous. With social media today, people have found a new way to be anonymously cruel to one another. From a very early age the world had put Monroe under a microscope and looked for any flaws that she might have. Once they were found everyone made sure that everyone knew about it. She never felt like she really belonged anywhere and she never truly trusted anyone because when she did, they would only disappoint her. When we examine the effects of social media and the bullying associated with it, more people, especially young women feel similar to Marilyn. When you feel like you need the world’s approval for everything you do, some serious mental problems are sure to happen. The most disappointing thing about this is that it is considered normal to feel this way. Young women are supposed to search for approval from everyone and yet nobody wants to give approval online. Soon those beautiful women won't believe anything anyone says that is positive because they have been judged so harshly for so long. That is a dangerous path to travel down.
Technology has made it very easy to access everything. The world is at your fingertips which means that anyone can educate themselves on basically everything. Now that is quite wonderful but there is a problem, rummers. Technology has given everyone a voice but not everyone is as informed as they should be on the information they are passing along. When rumors start to fly around about people it can have a devastating effect. When society teaches that you need approval from everyone and yet rumors are glorified it is very hard to really believe in yourself. This started to affect Marilyn Monroe as it affects the young women of today’s world. When enough people believe the lies, it can be hard for the person who is the subject of said lie to still believe in the truth. Having those negative sources in your life can have devastating mental problems associated with them. Lack of self-esteem and feeling worthless to everyone around you, and depression as well as eating disorders are just some. Adding technology to the mix of what society is telling the young women of today's world just means that it is easy for them to hear these messages.
Advertising is also a place where negative messages are shared with the world. Huge billboards, magazines, advertisements on television, and so on all use images to make people feel like they need something they don’t have. One of the ways this is done is that the advertisement companies try to make the consumers feel bad about themselves and they tell them that the way to feel better is to have this product because it will turn you into the person in the ad. Marilyn had a similar experience with the other actresses of her day. She never felt like she was as thin, or as beautiful as them. Those feelings are extremely similar to the feelings the modern girl feel due to advertisements. By studying Marilyn's actions on feeling worthless we can understand the proper way to address those doubts in a constructive way. One of the major downfalls of Monroe’s was that she lived in a very destructive world where very few people actually cared for her; she felt this and that may have lead to her sudden death. Knowing that, we may have found a way to decrease the amount of teen suicides in the modern world.
When the world has such high demands for you it can be so much pressure that the person who the expectations are based on will eventually just crack. Some can hold out longer than others but eventually everyone has a breaking point. What can be learned from Marilyn is how to get help and what can happen if no help is found. People will go to something that gives them comfort. For Miss Monroe that was drugs and alcohol. Hopefully more people, especially young women can learn from her mistakes and overcome the challenges that our society has created.
