Broken Ladder

Too many women are becoming the men they want to marry while too few men are becoming the woman they want to marry. The world is changing faster than our ability to evolve without the help and support of one another we will continue to struggle.

This current movement matters to me. I grew up watching Marilyn Monroe a true feminist of her time. American culture killed her, this clever, introspective woman and as a young child, this sent a clear message to me about the danger of expressing vulnerability, passion, and desire. That message was re-affirmed in the post I shared yesterday in what happens to women in America.

Below is an excerpt from Marilyn Monroe’s last interview before she took her life. I think of all the men who are quoted in history and as they say, if the Queen had balls she’d be King. Well, Marilyn had “balls” she just didn’t get the acknowledgment she deserved for having them. There is a reason when I started my blog I titled it, Broken Ladder, and used her image as a symbol. The ladder has been broken for a very long time. We need to unite around black lives matter. All of us to fix it.

Excerpt from Marilyn’s last interview 8.3.1962
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“I don’t care about money. I just want to be wonderful. I’ve been asked, 'Do you mind living in a man’s world?’ I always answer, Not as long as I can be a woman in it. I learned to walk when I was ten months old and I’ve been walking this way ever since. Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that? If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman. It was my fans who made me a star. I’m thirty-six years old. I’m just getting started!
It’s nice to be included in people’s fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake. I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have. You can read about yourself but what’s important is how you feel about yourself. Please don’t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one … I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity. What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.”
This last interview with Marilyn appeared in the August 3, 1962 edition of Life Magazine and can be found in audio form as well.

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