Tv REVIEWS - Books and BLONDE

AMY'S BOOK HUNT, PBS

Amy Brent, daughter of a well known book store owner visits flea markets, estate sales, and thrift shops to show viewers how books destined for discard can be worth a lot of money. This was a fascinating tv show to someone like me because my house is literally filled with books. I have floor to ceiling book shelves in every room. AND I have taken boxes of books to book depository recepticles like Better World Books and other places trying to cut down. I took cartons of books on Women's History to Alice Paul Institute Library, but as it turned out they were downsizing their library and going more for on-line research. I have also taken cartons of books to those libraries and book stores still willing to take them, but increaingly, it seems to me, outside of urban, literate communities, people don't read much anymore. Despite he proliferatiion of Book Clubs, I think the average people are getting all their informaiton from television, not even from newspapers so much anymore. I find that sad because I LOVED books and they have been my friends all my life and my lifesavers. The connection with BLONDE is the bridge of two kinds of lives, the scholarly and the entertainment. I exclude mentioning sports because the real connection here is a story about my daughter and a prom dress. Adding sports would be too much.

It has been said by many people over my lifetime that I have a negative view of men. It is true, I do. One of the many many things I like about being old, is that I am no longer the object of male desire. Now I have fallen into the category of Granny or Old Timey retired teacher, stout, white haired, sensible shoes and, as of this year, very short hair.

In my youth, because I developed early and was tall and pretty and blonde, I was the unwilling recipient of the kind of male attention that the Women's Movement has pretty much put a stop to - street harrassment, lewd comments from strangers, surreptitious touching on public transportation and all manner of invasive attention. I hated it and it gave me bad posture because I was inadvertently tryng to shrink myself and become less visible. I developed sloped shoudlers to camoflage my developing breasts, for example. Everyone always commented on my posture and tried to make me stand up straight, but standing up straight made you look proud and drew attention. I was shy and didn't want attention. My bad posture, however, made me more a victime because it made me look vulnerable.

BLONDE, the movie, was a lurid and disrespectful exploitation of a pathetic dead woman who was, her entire life, the victim of constant exploitation because she was beautiful and weak. She encouraged the attention because of her traumatic childhood and because she had learned it was the easiest and most reliable way to get attention which she confused with love. Unfortunately, the attention always turned negative and exploitive because it was based on her beauty and sexual allure and as Vanessa Redgrave once so eloquently said; "When you are beautiful, you learn everything that is evil at an early age."

Marilyn Monroe's mother was a paranoid schizophrenic and was so abusive towards her little child that she tried to murder her by drowning her in the bathtub. It reminded me of the case of Andrea Yates, who in 2001 drowned all five of her children in the bathtub and then called the police. She was convinced she had to save them from going to Hell and that she had to die by execution. She is in a mental institution at this present time, 2022. She had schizophrenia and had suffered a psychotic break fueled by her fundamentalist religion and the exhortations of a bible spouting family friend. Her husband, appaently, was oblivious to her mental decline.

Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 at the age of 36, and yet she remains the object of such fascination from the press and the public. Before I permanently deleted my facebook account, I frequently recieved 'sexy images' of Marilyn Monroe from people - odd and surprising! They sent them the way some peope send kitten and puppy pictures with butterflies circling overhead. It always made me think how Marilyn Monroe was DEAD and how sad and unkind her life had been.

When my daughter was a senior in high school, she wanted me to make her prom gown but I hadn't sewn in years and a prom gown wa far above my skill level at any point, anyhow. I didn't really know what she wanted, so she made it herself, a home-made version of what she perceived to be Marilyn Monroe's SOME LIKE IT HOT dress. I was sad and embarrassed by her outfit and it seemed a bit delusional to me. But, I tried to stoicly smile through it. What that dress represented to me was a girl used, abused and discarded by a cruel and wolfish world. What it meant to my daughter I cannot say, maybe glamour? I had spent a lot of money on beautiful prom gowns in previous years, more like Disney princess tulle and rhinestone frocks than the polka dotted knit dress she sewed. That was the second year of our drawing further and further apart in my daughter's teens. The truth is, my daugher was more her father's child and I don't think I ever really understood her. Furthermore, she really wanted to be out of my sphere of influence beginning in her teens. I saw books and the scholarly life as the way out, the way to a dignified, safe, and rich life. Like her father, Lavinia was more of a performer and she craved attention which I shunned. We were very different.

Well, it is all in the past now. My daughter is close to 40 and long gone from my life in most ways and she is safe and married and successful in her chosen world of theater and film, and Marilyn Monroe is dead 60 years now and the world has changed for the better in a lot of ways, at least in America and Europe. In the Middle East, however, blatant gender discrimination and abuse prevails. An Iranian young wonan, 22 years old, was arrested by the "Morality Police" for having her bangs showing in the top of her head covering. She was beaten and killed in jail and the women and many male supporters have been protesting and rioting for the whole week in Iran, to, I fear, no real use. The Fundamentalist leaders will simply arrest a few hundred of them, terrorize and intimidate the rest, and all will fall back into the groove that has been carved out in the culture. They had a free country once, under the American supported Shah, and women dressed as they wished, but the fundamentalist fervor swept over the country and all the liberal reforms were erased.

My recommendation - don't bother watching BLONDE (on Netflix) it will just depress you but do watch AMY BRENT's Book documentary and you might find treasure in a box in your attic! Although she didn't really explain how to get the book to the custormer willing to pay the prices allegedly listed on the internet. Maybe a later episode? Oh, I almost forgot BLONDE the film was based on a BOOK written by Joyce Carol Oates.

Happy Trails, Jo Ann