One of the most iconic and famous popular culture icons throughout history has been Marilyn Monroe. Her "Happy Birthday Dress" (which she wore when she sang the endearing song to the President of the United States) is one of her most iconic looks, and has been preserved and stored with the upmost care over the years. It is very rarely touched or moved, but when it has been done it has always been done with gloves and more than one person.
Fast forward through time to the 2022 Met Gala-- when another one of America's most famous pop culture icons, Kim Kardashian made her appearance wearing Marilyn's dress. With a first look at the situation, it seems like Kim got special permission and it was a lovely tribute to the 50's and 60's star.
Once the media got a hold of the situation, more details arose and what seemed to be a beautiful tribute became a flaming controversy across all media platforms. There were a few points of interest to the media, but on of the biggest was that Kim was accused of damaging the dress while she wore it. The next biggest controversy that occurred was that Kim Kardashian had to lose 16 pounds in order to fit into the dress, and she did it in a very quick and unhealthy way. A lot of her fans were very upset by this because they thought that she was portraying that people should have to change themselves in order to fit into trendy clothes, or lose weight in a very unhealthy way to be pretty.
When faced and confronted with these accusations, pop culture icon Kardashian said that she did not damage the dress, and that she actually only had it on for 3-4 minutes. She also said that she had a worker from the place that handled the dress with her at all times. As for the unhealthy body weight accusation, Kardashian said that movie stars do it all the time to fill certain roles and it is acceptable, but she does it to fit in a dress and it is considered wrong? She also mentioned that she did not say "hey you should do this too!" and that she wishes her fans did not see it the way they do because that is not how she intended it to be.
According to the book The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture, in the first chapter--it states that "popular culture has the pervasive power to shape beliefs and behaviors." Which we can see in this example with Kim Kardashian. Do you believe that it is easier to be positively influenced and shaped or negatively influenced and shaped? We can see that both have happened with this scenario--some people were positively influenced by the "beautiful tribute to Marilyn Monroe" and fell even more in love with Kim. While others thought her example of losing weight was awful to her younger fans, showing them unhealthy habits. What side are you on?
This story has been so intriguing to me and I appreciated your summary and analysis of the situation. I think that we are more susceptible to being positively influenced however we notice the negative influences more. For example, when I think of how a person can develop an idea of body image and what is desirable vs. undesirable, my brain is flooded with instances of unhealthy demonstrations in the media that contribute to a negative body image. However, that doesn't mean that I haven't also observed the healthy demonstrations that have contributed to a positive body image, those instances just aren't as memorable. The positive influences often occur in a more subtle manner while the negative influences are often more blatant.
ReplyDeleteI love the example that you picked. Now, I am not a fan of Kim Kardashian and I definitely don't keep up with the Kardashians, but even I heard about this scandal regarding the dress of Marilyn Monroe. The media made a huge fuss about how she lost weight in an unhealthy manner. Even though Kim probably didn't mean any harm by choosing to do whatever it took to wear that famous dress, I do think that many women look up to Kim as a role model. Because of this, I do think that younger fans may be influenced by her unhealthy weight loss. Popular culture really has a huge effect on society, and celebrities need to be aware that they are thrust into the position of role model whether they like it or not.
ReplyDelete