Piper Nuelle

Marilyn Monroe, a huge movie star icon whose sexy and glamourous appeal had her appear in many films and become such an iconic persona that even today she is remembered as a stunning beauty. With her famous red lip and blonde hair, many try to impersonate her style, but she is the OG, the original sex bomb for the silver screen. Remember when Kim Kardashian wore her iconic dress to the Met Gala back in 2022! Everyone remembers her and loves her, and it’s great that we can keep her memory alive.

The name Marilyn Monroe was her stage name, her real name was Norma Jean Mortenson and she had a hard childhood and start to life in orphanages and foster homes but she was determined to make something of herself… And wow did she.

I like Marilyn Monroe, she is pretty, yet she looks womanly, she was a woman who knew what she wanted in a very much male orientated field of ‘Hollywood’, yet she paved the way in some ways for women to come. She had themes explored that were horrendous such as; sexism, exploitation, abuse, forced abortions and so on. Her on screen life was at times just as painful as her off screen life, and with her young and premature death which could maybe have been prevented if she had been around people who cared and could give her the care she needed it does open many questions. But what I relate to her more than anything else is her private battle with Endometriosis! Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside the womb and in other parts of the body, causing scarring, pain and in some cases, infertility.

In Marilyn’s case her Endometriosis caused her much heartbreak with many miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy which most likely in my opinion contributed to her depression and use of painkillers. The public scrutinised her for her use of painkillers and drugs, but how can you scrutinise unless you have lived with this horrific condition. The condition itself can cause immense pain, crippling cramps that can cause nausea, back pain, shortness of breath, migraines, bowel problems and bladder problems. And even today in modern times compared to Marilyn’s time, there has not been much in medical advancement, and women’s health back then was not taken as seriously and was quite often put down to hysteria, hormones, stress etc, which actually it is still put down to that today. But the pain killers would have clearly been to help with her pain and the drugs, well… Many people turn to things that are not good for them to cope with a loss, and all Marilyn wanted was a baby of her own to love and cherish, but it was not to be, and that is very, very painful.

I was lucky in that I had my two children really young, but if I had waited until I had a good career and a house like your meant to, I most probably wouldn’t have been able to have children either. I’m 35 years old now and I have just had a full hysterectomy to help with my stage four endometriosis!

Because I suffer with the same condition that she too suffered with, I felt I wanted to learn more about her, I wanted to get to know her in a way and also not let her and her pain be forgotten.

The book ‘Monroe’ by Taschen is basically a film and photo biography of Marilyn. The company Taschen seem to be the type of company to produce high end books that centre mostly around art and imagery, not so much words and exploration of history.

I found this book second hand in a charity shop and I thought it might be a good read. The book itself was ok, I did learn a few things about her but not too much, it had some information but not a lot and the first few pages are what really holds any information on her and her life, but then it repeats it all, but in another language.

The photos and images in this book are some of the most stunning ones of Marilyn and its great to see her work the camera and become the icon she is. It is a shame that sometimes it looks to be that she wasn’t taken as seriously as she wanted, they saw her as just a dumb blonde woman who had no clue, but she was intelligent and knew what she wanted and how to get it. And for that she was most definitely a force to be reckoned with and I admire her for it.

I would give this book a 7/10 score, whilst the photos and images were great to look at, I guess I did expect a little more information on her. Maybe not to a biography standard, but a bit more than a couple of pages. I only paid £1.50 for the book in the charity shop, I’m not sure how much it would have cost originally, the Taschen website sells books from anything from £15 to £1,000 depending on the book and the theme. If I had to wager a guess based on other books I have seen similar on their website, I would guess £30 maybe would have been it’s original price point, but I cannot be sure. I might not have wanted to spend that amount of money on it, maybe £15 at most, but then again, the photos and colour print are good and that can be expensive with printing costs… Hmmm… ok… Maybe around £30 isn’t so bad lol.

Whilst it is a nice edition to have in my book collection and it was great to see Marilyn Monroe at photo shoots, on film locations and film shoots. I would have liked the book to have more information. So, it’s not a bad book, just very much a picture book with hardly any words.

If you are a huge Marilyn fan then I feel this book would be great to have in your collection as it is definitely like a collectors keepsake type of book. If you want to know more about her, then this book is probably not for you, but the photos and film timeline are good sources of information about her.

xo Piper xo