At Vulture, Marya E. Gates writes an excellent piece on Marilyn Monroe’s poetry and what the film, Blonde (2022) overlooks. “In one fragment, she contemplates how we can never really know what others went through in their early years and ‘what they drag with them.’ In another, she discusses the freedom of being onstage and how she finds assurance while performing because she will not be whipped or threatened or ‘not be loved.’ She also alludes to feelings of shame attached to being molested when she was younger and the subsequent punishment she seemingly received for the violations inflicted on her. While Blonde continually presents its version of Monroe as a victim with little autonomy, the real one clearly worked hard to be her own woman. One fragment reads, ‘My body is my body / every part of it.’”

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