Core Post: femininity in the fifties

While reading Audrey Hepburn by William A. Brown, I found myself thinking back to the Thomas Harris reading about the building of Marilyn Monroe’s and Grace Kelly’s images and it intrigued me how drastically Hepburn, Monroe and Kelly differed in their rise to fame and as well as each one’s persona. I found it refreshing to read about how difficult it was to peg Audrey Hepburn into one category due to her ambiguities of nationality and gender as well as the many contradictions she embodies such as “animal and human”, “intelligence and sexiness” and “dream and real life”. Each woman was such a huge success in the fifties and yet each one represented different things.

Grace Kelly embodied all the traits of a “lady” and Marilyn was seen as a sex symbol. What I found interesting was when Harris explains how the “truths” of Kelly’s and Marilyn’s life were “exploited with phenomenal effectiveness”. For example the truth of Kelly’s family background was a contributing factor to her lady like persona as well as the many quotes from her co-stars all commenting on her loveliness and proper edict. Marilyn’s truths of her younger self and early marriage contributed to her provocative persona. When it comes to Audrey Hepburn, Brown kept bringing up the many ambiguities of her and the little truths that never mattered in her image, like her nationality- “ “what nationality” Hepburn is or was is not as important” which contributed to his statement of calling her an “event”.  These truths helped shape these women’s images, however it seems that Hepburn had more ambiguities than truths.

Looking at their backgrounds and claims to fame, each star had a different story. Could their individual backgrounds be the reason why some were so controlled and shaped by their studios? Grace Kelly came from an all American wealthy family in Philly. That type of proper and controlled lifestyle could be why Grace was so allowing of the studios to shape her image. Monroe had a rough childhood, where she never knew her father and her mother spent a majority of time in a mental institution. This could be why Marilyn was so allowing of the studios to create her image, because she wanted to make up for the love she never received in her childhood. Hepburn grew up under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands and endured extreme hardships as a child. This could contribute to her independence and refusal to be controlled by the studios.