I have been hesitating completing this post as it it my 100th and I feel as if I should do something special... I just don't know what.
However lately I have been consumed with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis v Marilyn Monroe subject. There are many articles on the subject and I first became fixated on the comparison after the episode of Mad Men in which they are tasked with coming up with a new campaign for Playtex read a little about it
here. Joan of course is in her own class.
Vanity Fair have shared a quiz taken from Pamela Keogh's book 'Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn', I didn't take the quiz but have always identified myself as the Marilyn type of girl. I am blonde, curvaceous and growing up it was her style that I would seek to mimic, I think all my sisters are 'Marilyn's', two in particular are overtly sexual whether they acknowledge it or not. The second oldest however maybe be a little more Jackie.
I know a lot of women do not like to be 'labelled' but I feel there is a distinct societal division between these two types of women and the more movies/TV etc I watch the more this belief is intensified. Take for example two of my favourite 'girly' TV shows
Gossip Girl and
The OC the two strong female leads in these programs can distinctively be categorised as either a 'Marilyn' or a 'Jackie'.
Marissa Cooper instantly attracts all kinds of male (and female) attention in the show and in true 'Marilyn' style manages to self-destruct several times before her death at the hands of ex-boyfriend Volchuk, Summer the sweet little brunette starts out as a bit of a b*tch but by the end of the series her efforts to save animals great and small land her squarely in the 'Jackie' corner. In similar style Gossip Girl's Serena with a wave of her beautiful long blonde locks sends men in a craze all the while drinking herself silly and forever searching for her absent father (did the writer's base her character off Marilyn??) but her best friend Blair has visions of becoming a powerful ruler (by royalty or politics) and is always perfectly dressed ready to step in as First Lady (or Princess), sound familiar?
And then I realised it didn't just begin there... remember Dawson's Creek? Michelle Williams (Jen) and Katie Holmes (Joey) started practicing for their respective roles as Marilyn and Jackie on the teen drama
the list could go on forever but what is it about blonde trainwrecks and brunette homemakers that is so attractive in popular culture? any ideas let me know... back to Christmas stuff next time
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