Marilyn Monroe was not a size 12, or 14, or 16, or whatever. She just wasn't. Stop saying this. You aren't helping anyone.
Marilyn was 118 pounds and 5'5". You can do the math in your head and figure out that she was very small -- far thinner than I am -- although there's no question that she was gorgeous, curvy, and fuller-faced than most modern Hollywood actresses.
I hear this most often from women who are trying to say that "plus-sized" (ugghhh I hate that term) women are beautiful. They are. WE are: I'd be considered "plus sized" by the standards of today's fashion industry. But we're not beautiful because we can be compared with Marilyn Monroe.
I am gobsmacked that anyone could look at a photo of the lovely and curvaceous Ms. Monroe and pronounce her fat. If she was fat, there is no hope for the rest of us. She was tiny but far curvier than the Photoshopped women we see in today's magazines. Holding her up as an example of plus-sized beauty is ridiculous.
Marilyn's dramatic hourglass shape is just as unrealistic for most women as runway models' tiny shapes are. I'm pretty curvy but could never diet my way to her measurements. Even if I found a way, I'm sure I'd be miserable. I won't find happiness by calling another woman fat. I need to find happiness on my own.
Let's look to Marilyn as just one woman in a world full of women with different body types, all beautiful in their own ways. But please, let's not compare ourselves to her.
OK. So....
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Monroe WAS as 12/14.
The problem is that women's clothing sizes are a moving target. The pattern size for my wedding dress (which was closer to clothing sizes when Marilyn was around) was a 14/16 (I had to use two different patterns) and at that time I was 5'7.5" ~125 pounds.
The inherent problem is that clothing retailers sell ego more than they sell clothes. So saying that Marilyn was a size 14 means absolutely nothing, because she'd be a size 0 or a size 2 in "modern" clothing.
I think it's also important to note that she mostly likely would be considered too fat to be a model today.
None of which means she was plus sized.
It means that our society is so fucked up that we have no damned clue what a woman's body is supposed to look like.
I think it's a fascinating glimpse into the way we as a culture see fashion and beauty. The people who say this are never talking about the downward creep in sizes over the decades; they are always rallying the troops in support of fat beauty. This is awesome but would be even MORE awesome if they were using a better example (or even no example: who among us has the "right" body for all of the others to emulate?).
ReplyDeleteI suspect that if Marilyn bought clothes off the rack, they probably WERE a 1950s British size 14 (AKA current North American size 2 or whatever) and then taken in to fit her tiny waist. It just irks me that anyone could point to her as an example of a plus-sized woman. Good Lord. These people really, really aren't helping. Marilyn was tiny.
Funny I was just thinking this today, as I watched a movie trailer starring her from 1956. I have seen many photos of Marilyn, but few live action (just haven't sought them out).
ReplyDeleteI looked and thought, there is NO way that's a 12.
I have always known about size drift but that made it loud and clear.
I just love the size of her thighs! Awesome big thighs that can hold up a woman who danced in many of her films.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and great comments!!
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