MovieChat Forums > The Seven Year Itch (1955) Discussion > Gorgeous but apparently mentally challen...

Gorgeous but apparently mentally challenged: sex symbol in the 50s.

posted 8 years ago by RandomNJ
10 replies | jump to latest

I love classic movies and this is just a product of its time but I cringe at Marilyn Monroe most famous films.

The dumb blond stereotype sure owns a lot to her roles.
Imagine that ideal woman in the 50s for a man was to be gorgeous like Monroe and dumb as a rock.
Her most revered flicks rely on this trick of making her a little more than a mentally challenged girl. That started with her cameo in the 'All about Eve' .

I like her role in 'Niagara' where she is the opposite of dumb and actually portrayed as conniving and well aware of her power on men and how to use it. The role must be a dirty one but at least she is femme fatale not femme stupide.

I wonder how women at that time felt watching this kind of 'ideal woman' being passed as the kind of girl every man wanted.

[–] robin-moss2 8 years ago

It's pretty well established that women liked Marilyn Monroe almost as much as men did.

[–] klondike99 8 years ago

No. Not mentally challenged, but incurably vulnetable. That's what the charm of a MM was.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

<< Not mentally challenged, but incurably vulnetable. >>

She is "vulnerable" because she usually comes across as having the brain of a 4-year-old.
.

[–] heyteegs (1207) 5 years ago

And Tom Ewell’s character comes across as not much older.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 6 years ago

Imagine that ideal woman in the 50s for a man was to be gorgeous like Monroe and dumb as a rock.
--
Who said she was the ideal kind of girl every man wanted. Every means all.
Thats only in the movies. Men didn't want a dumb blonde, any more than they do now (and some men today might prefer that too) People haven't changed THAT much.

[–] liscarkat (19385) 5 years ago

That's true--men in 1955 weren't looking for a dumb woman any more than they are today, which is hardly ever. Intelligence, maturity, and a grown-up manner of speaking have always been regarded as attractive qualities by most men.

[–] heyteegs (1207) 5 years ago

Am I wrong to read sarcasm in your reply?

[–] liscarkat (19385) 2 years ago

Wrong, absolutely. Intelligent men are attracted to intelligent women. That being said, a spectacular rack doesn't hurt either.

[–] Adam60z (3781) 5 years ago

Yes, that's true, and ironic considering Marilyn in real life was smart. I think the idea is dumb girls were not a threat. So I think women often played dumber than they were.

[–] liscarkat (19385) 2 years ago

The picture promoted in recent decades of Marilyn Monroe as an intellectual is almost certainly a myth.