Intelligence vs. Icon
Reading
the article about Marilyn Monroe really surprised me. I was unaware of her passion for learning and
intellect before I read it. She was curious about learning, and
yearned to be more educated. Actually, I
believe this aspect of personality has faded from many people’s personalities
today. Regardless of whether or not she
was intelligent, she was always striving to “better herself.” Her quote about her persona that the
article used was especially powerful to me.
She said, “I’ve let people
fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was.” Instead of people discovering the woman
behind the façade, they judged her on the role she was playing as a dumb
blonde. To judge people purely on their
appearances and fronts they put up is an aspect of society that we have never
really grown out of. My best guess as to
why she “hid” her intelligence is because it was what the society wanted at
that time. An overly-sexualized dumb
blonde was able to attract more people’s attention than an intelligent
woman. Unfortunately, I think this fact
still lingers in society today.
A
modern day celebrity that may be hiding part of her intellect is Kesha. This may be common knowledge at this point,
but I think she is essentially holding back on her intelligence in order to
further her career as a pop singer.
Although I do not particularly like the music she produces, I can
respect how smart she is. Sources say she
earned an almost-perfect score on the SAT, and was accepted at Barnard
College. However, instead of completing
her time at Barnard through graduation, she chose to drop out and pursue her
music career instead. Her songs can
often be described as having “dumb” lyrics with no substance, but many people
would probably also say that her songs are catchy. She may be producing this kind of music
though because unfortunately, it is what sells.
The songs that people will play at parties and on the radio are always
the catchy, upbeat ones, not the ones with the most meaningful lyrics. In order to sell more of this music, she would
have to physically depict the persona she is selling in her music.
I agree with your discussion of Kesha and how it is disappointing to see someone hold back their intellect to better their fame. Sadly, marketing oneself as a smart singer probably would not catch on in the music world when people may be attracted to the "dumb blonde" persona of the Marilyn days. However, I think that if she chose to showcase her intellectual side a bit more in either her lyrics or in her personal life, that more individuals would be encouraged to strive to better themselves as well.
ReplyDeleteI like that you compared Kesha's music to being a selling point for her and therefore it makes her appear dumb. It's a shame in today's world that people need to change who and what they are in order to strive in certain aspects of their live.
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