The 1953 20th Century Fox film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe, is a film that focuses especially on the stereotype of the “dumb blonde”. This is emphasized visually and contextually in the film. One thing that stands out to me visually is the juxtaposition of Monroe’s character, Lorelei Lee, against her best friend Dorothy Shaw (portrayed by Jane Russell). Russell’s character is brunette, the “smart” one in their relationship that makes all the plans and keeps Lorelei in line, and is almost always seen wearing dark colors, usually black. Monroe, on the other hand, wears colorful, tight clothing and heavy makeup, is blonde, and is the “dumb one”. She is, literally, the pink to Dorothy’s black.
Most of her scenes have her talking to another man and put on an air of being naïve and innocent. Her lips have red lipstick on them and are always pouted when talking to the male characters, indicating that she should be seen as a sexual object. Her voice is also stilted and soft with long vowels, clearly a seductive technique by the producers. As stated in the reading “Monroe and Sexuality” from Richard Dyer’s book Heavenly Bodies, “Frequently too she is placed within the frame of the camera in such a way as to stand out in silhouette, a side-on tits and arse positioning obsessively repeated throughout her films” (20). She is portrayed this way in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as well, very obviously.
Dorothy seems to be the only person in the movie that knows the true intelligence of Lorelei and treats her with respect. This is interesting to me because it shows how a phenotypical portrayal of a person can come with a preconceived notion of the amount of respect they should gain. I’ve noticed this with myself, as well. I am not blonde, but I am physically built in a way that is often sexualized and with that comes a preconceived idea that I am dumb or promiscuous. It’s incredible how often people say “I can’t believe you are as smart as you are” or something similar, after just meeting me. This intelligence bias is seen in the penultimate ending scene of the movie as well, when Lorelei and Gus meet Gus’ father.
Lorelei says, “Don’t you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You might not marry a girl just because she’s pretty, but my goodness doesn’t it help?
The father replies: “Say, they told me you were stupid!”
Lorelei responds: “I can be smart when it’s important. But most men don’t like it. Except Gus. He’s always been interested in my brains.”
Clearly, the father assumes that simply because Lorelei looks a certain way, she must be dumb. This scene tries to prove him wrong.
There are a few side aspects that stuck out to me in this scene as well. Gus is portrayed as meek, bending to his fathers will. Structurally, he is standing off to the side and Lorelei and Gus’ father are the center of attention. The viewer almost forgets he is there with how powerful Lorelei is speaking. She also is the one commanding their relationship in that moment. Gus shuts up when his father tells him to, but Lorelei fights back and defends herself. She is the one with the power in the scene, not either of the men. It’s something I didn’t expect from a film produced in 1953.
This power is also twisted in a sexist way, however, like in the scene where Dorothy hatches a plan to take the photo film out of Ernie Malone’s pockets. “If we can’t empty his pockets between us, we aren’t worthy of the name woman”. Personally, that made it seem like the film was trying to portray women as devilish creatures who could trick men into doing whatever they wanted. It also puts their power only in relation to men, instead of being powerful in general. This is just another way in which the film seeks to portray women as only sexual objects.
Secondly, it’s interesting that Lorelei mentions that Gus likes her for her “brains”, when that is not portrayed in the film at all. In fact, every time Lorelei kisses Gus there is a dazed sound effect, showing that he is overcome with her beauty and is transported to a state of blissful surprise. He is portrayed as being into her looks only. The focus of his attractiveness is on his brains and his money, the focus of her attractiveness is on her looks. Dyer states, “If a man was attractive to women, it was generally discussed in terms of qualities of personality that were only in part to do with how he treated women’ whereas desirability in women had to do almost entirely with how a woman responded to men” (49).
It’s so interesting watching this movie after reading the articles and learning about how Marilyn Monroe is portrayed in films. I remember watching Some Like it Hot several years ago and being entertained by it, not really realizing anything was wrong besides “the times were just like that”. I laughed along with the production at Monroe’s dumb blonde portrayal. Dyer states, “Some Like it Hot is even more insidious, for its comedy depends upon plot strategies whereby Monroe/Sugar makes herself defenceless because she thinks she’s safe” (44). I never realized that while watching the movie the first time. I took her sexuality for granted and played along with it when, really, I should have been more critical of that portrayal.