Remembering Marilyn Monroe’s Radical Politics

Marilyn Monroe, contrarily to the figure we've been repeatedly told she was -- dumb, blonde vixen aspiring to live the life of the rich and famous, was an incredibly well-spoken, empathetic and intelligent comrade. I think it's disgusting the way her radical legacy has been buried so deeply under the rug. Great OpEd by the always brilliant Yanis Iqbal remembering Marilyn Monroe's revolutionary history.

"The stifling nature of Monroe’s Hollywood career meant that she was naturally attracted to counter-hegemonic political positions that promised to liberate humanity from the alienating effects of capitalism. She openly defended the Communist Party members who were under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy period. For her, the following reason was sufficient enough to associate with members of the Hollywood Ten and with trial victims like Arthur Miller: 'They’re for the people, aren’t they?'. In 1955, she applied for a visa to visit the Soviet Union, after which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started surveilling her."

"On issues of sexuality, she was similarly progressive, willing to question Hollywood’s privileging of heterosexuality as the only legitimate form of love. Years before the emergence of the queer movement, she defended the gay actor Montgomery Clift against press harassment and ridicule: “People who aren’t fit to open the door for him sneer at his homosexuality. What do they know about it? Labels – people love putting labels on each other. Then they feel safe.” “No sex is wrong if there’s love in it.”