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PROFILE
The Blog Owner.

IMG_7722 Joanna
-21-

You have to be cold to be Queen.

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upon a wishing star

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  • CREDITS
    spontaneous applause.

    Design: materialisti-c

    A Tribute To Marilyn Monroe
    Date / Time : Tuesday, October 13, 2015 / 9:41 AM
    Hello there!

    I'm actually writing this in the morning, so pardon my language because I'm feeling rather sleepy. Now, I usually complete my post before I start on the title, but I decided this time that I already knew the title.

    Normal practice: my post contents determine the title
    Today: the title determines my post contents

    So yes, let's begin.

    //


    Now, many people throughout history (not really long but around 60 years?) have had a debate over the legacy left behind by Marilyn Monroe. Many have debated whether she contributed to the world as much as people gave her credit for, while some believed that she was capable of so much more.

    Personally, I am a great fan of Marilyn Monroe. I love her, her works, her style, and more importantly, the way she viewed life and the things around her. Not that I love the fact that she was portrayed as a bimbo a lot, but more that she had views about life that were definitely etched somewhere within a person, but they were much too noble to admit.

    Marilyn Monroe once said, "I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love."

    Now, it's true that we are more open to admit that we sin in this day and age, but that wasn't the case back in the 1950s. People were more closed up about their personal self, and most females who were feminists would have never admitted that they were trying to find someone to love, or that they were a little girl.

    I'm not saying that this is definitely true to all females, but what I'm saying is that there were definitely females who felt this way back then, but did not have the courage to be true to what they felt. They didn't believe that this was something they should be feeling, because they were supposed to support female rights etc.

    Marilyn Monroe, now she found the courage to be true to that. She wasn't anti-feminist, she just wasn't a feminist on her own. She loved that she was a woman, and admitted what was true to her.

    You may say that this image is what the media portrayed of her, but Marilyn Monroe was also known to have spoken inspirational quotes far beyond the intellectual capabilities of the "dumb blonde" image they wanted her to possess. Which is true, and which is false? It's up to us to decide. After all, she couldn't verify if she wanted to, anyway.

    //

    Marilyn Monroe was a legend. She has inspired the works of so many artists and artistes in the decades to come after her death, including Andy Warhol and Madonna. After her death, many celebrities were also branded based on the image she built in the media, the "dumb blonde" image. She inspired so many stories on the "helpless female".


    Of course, you would argue that we shouldn't encourage the "helpless female" or the "dumb blonde". However, that is what feminists have told you to do. Feminists have always detest the idea of the helpless female, because they believed in female empowerment. But that does not make the "helpless female" an incorrect concept, it's just another concept that feminists don't believe in.

    Yes, the "helpless female" may not always be a positive image to inspire future generations to achieve, but the fact is that so many female celebrities beyond Marilyn Monroe's time have been inspired to do so. Does that not make her legacy strong, however "conventional" or "inappropriate" it may be?

    //

    Her works were impressive, and she has been reported as "timeless". Marilyn Monroe passed on in 1962. As of 2015, she has passed on for 53 years. Yet, we see traces of her in so many media portrayals until today.

    If you head to Universal Studios Singapore, you'd see a performer dressing in a white halter dress with a platinum blonde wig. She goes around saying sweet words to the people taking photos with her, and always wears a lovely smile on her face.

    The fact that Marilyn Monroe is so iconic that universal studios still puts her as a mascot, means that people do know her. People, born long after her death, remembers her.

    If you are not convinced, here's another example. Most people remember the white halter dress that flew when a celebrity stood on top of a subway grating. Many people remember the celebrity covering the dress down as it flew. If you remember that iconic image, you remember Marilyn Monroe.


    I'm not saying she's still popular today. I'm saying that, despite having passed on for 53 years, she is still a subject of media portrayals. People call celebrities the "Marilyn Monroe" of whichever time period. People wear a white halter dress and imitate the way she behaves.

    She is timeless, because her legacy keeps passing on from the 20th century to the 21st century. Her death was not the end of her influence, but the beginning of a stronger influence.

    //

    Marilyn Monroe was once deemed the "American Dream". We all know that movies usually present an impractical way of life, or fate that isn't usually possible. A kid with a troubled past becomes an international celebrity that is well received by all. A kid with so much difficulties thrown at him/her overcomes them and fights their fate.

    That, was Marilyn Monroe. With a troubled past of living in foster homes and failed marriages, she become a well-known celebrity in her time with modelling and acting careers. She was also featured as the first centre-fold of the renowned Playboy magazine.

    We watch movies that tell us these stories, but more often than not we don't really find that possible in a real-life context. In Marilyn Monroe's case, it became her reality. Now, that was definitely a great inspiration, however difficult it may seem.

    //

    There are many many many great celebrities that have passed on, with stronger legacies left behind. Actresses that promoted Broadway and kindness like Audrey Hepburn, or actors that are still a topic of song lyrics like James Dean... are only some examples.



    I respect, and I absolutely adore them. But, Marilyn Monroe definitely left her legacy behind as well. However controversial it may have been, it was a legacy nonetheless.

    People have long debated her works, claiming that she was a lousy actress. People have debated her image as a "dumb blonde", promoting negative concepts to women. People have debated her life story, claiming that it was exaggerated and wasn't all that inspiring anyway.

    But she is still a topic of argument and discussion. In my opinion, if you can achieve that over 50 years after your death, you've left a legacy in this world.

    //

    And, that was my tribute to Marilyn Monroe. I also look up to her a lot, not that I want to be a dumb blonde, but I believe that sometimes it's not that bad to be the weak female.

    I don't encourage anti-feminist activities like slavery, abuse, forced control, or anything. I encourage that women should be empowered to protect themselves and fight for their rights. I'm just saying that it isn't so bad to be a weak female once in awhile, having the men to carry your bags or dote on you.

    It isn't all that bad, really. People just need to be more open to accepting this view, then they can fight for female rights while a man strolls along behind carrying their shopping bags.

    //

    To end things off, here's the iconic scene of the flying white halter dress.

    Children, I hate you.
    Date / Time : Saturday, October 10, 2015 / 4:06 PM
    Hello there!

    I have been on Internship so I've been really busy. For those of you who are curious, I've been posted to SAFRA Mount Faber for a Marketing Events Internship. Yes, it was by choice and I indeed was very interested in the job. I am enjoying my time there as well, but I cannot divulge any information regarding my internship so I'm sorry!

    Today, rather, I would like to address something that has been bothering me for awhile.

    Children.

    Most people who know me, know that I absolutely, truly, irrevocably... detest children. I dislike how they look, how they sound, how they act, how they dress, and how they breathe. I have this mental picture of myself killing them in incomprehensible methods when I walk pass a child. Yes, I do.

    However, it recently dawned on me that, perhaps, I didn't detest them because they were annoying. I detest them because I missed being a child.

    We all grow up wishing we could get older faster because we could do things that we couldn't do when we were much younger. Children wish they could be teenagers so they could hang out with their friends without their parents setting a curfew on them. Teenagers wish they would be 16 or 18 soon, so they could watch rated movies, or drink alcohol.

    18 year olds wish they could be 21 soon, so that they could be allowed to vote, or to work. Many children detest school so much that they wish they could work soon, and go on holidays on their own.

    Little did they know, with the freedom comes the sacrifice.

    //

    Are you unable to picture what I'm trying to point at?

    Well, let's make it easier to explain.

    Remember when you heard about the tooth fairy for the first time? Your parents told you that you'd get a coin if you placed your teeth beneath your pillow and slept over it for a night. In the morning, you'd get one and you'd believe the tooth fairy existed. As you grow up, you begin to realise that your parents were the ones who placed the coin there. You laugh and smile at the children who believe in the tooth fairy in the movie, "Rise of the Guardians", because you were once like that.

    Note: "once".

    //

    Many children wish they could go out without their parents, having the freedom to travel as they wish. However, there are sacrifices to go with it. Remember when you could just extend your arms out to your parents when you were tired? They would grumble a lot, but carry you in their arms anyway. You'd get to enjoy the day in the comfort of somebody's arms. At the end of the day, you'd sit in the car and sleep on your mother's lap as your father drives you home.

    Dinner is served to you, and you're nagged to shower so that you could watch some television before you sleep.

    When you grow up, you dress yourself and leave the home without so much as a "Bye, I'm off" to your parents. You spend the day grumbling about the hot sun or the long walks to your friends. At dinners, you decide for yourself, and spend over 10 minutes splitting the bills with your friends. Then, you dread the long bus + train ride home, which takes approximately 1 hour.

    When you're home, your parents are already asleep. You shower quietly, and sleep without drying your hair because you are so drained from the day out. Despite so, you do the exact same thing the next day.

    //

    I hate children that make annoying noises in public places, do you? However, I realised how convenient it was for them to do that. When we hear children making annoying noises, we assume that they had horrible upbringing, or pass it off as "they are children, leave them be."

    As a children, you get privileges like that. If I were to make annoying noises today at a public place, or scream at pigeons, somebody would probably make a phone call to the police station. In fact, some people may snap a photo of my actions and post it on our amazing local citizen journalism website, STOMP. There, I may be criticised as an animal hater, or a public nuisance whose school should discipline me.

    It may implicate my educational institution, with people claiming that Polytechnic students are badly educated and parents should send their children to Junior Colleges. I may be branded as an animal hater, and implicate my generation in the midst of it. The public will claim that my actions meant that our generations do not understand the importance of animal protection, and criticise on how "dreadful" it will be that Singapore will be left in our hands in the near future.

    As a child, you only get comments like "It's a child." or "Where are their parents???". Then, you turn away and go about your life again.

    //

    When you were younger, dreams were real. Dreams were possible, in the future. Stars were far, but you'd knew you grow up tall enough to catch them someday. We all believed we would grow tall enough one day to grab the stars, at some point in time.

    I wrote this in my previous posts before, but I still have to explain how children gets to get away with dreaming about impractical dreams while we don't, now. As a child, you had a good 10 years before you had to make a choice about what profession you wanted to go into.

    You study hard enough to get into a good secondary school, get into a good Junior College or Polytechnic course, and head to University. At 19, I have to decide whether I want to pursue a university degree upon graduation or work a few years before doing so. When I'm considering this, I also have to consider how I'm "wasting" my life away.

    As a child, we waste days and days away, just dreaming about catching the stars. At 19, we kind of know that puberty helps you grow, but not enough to reach the stars. Unless you're becoming an astronaut, then I don't know anymore.

    Children get away with dreaming about dreams like that, while we cannot. That's because our future is so much nearer than theirs, while our stars... seem so much further than it is to them. We wish that we could be children again, so the stars seem nearer, we could dream about being taller... and maybe, we could dream dreams that we actually wanted. Not dreams that we make ourselves have, because it's economically stable.

    //

    One of the thing I dread about children, is how they are so small sized. Come on, size is a sensitive topic to females, and many males.

    As children, we ate sweets everyday without a care on how fat we were going to get. We'd play on the playground and lose that fats at one go anyway. We hated that we had to eat healthy food, because all we wished we had for dinner was Mcdonalds'.

    When I eat with my friends, at least one person at the table will be "on a diet" or "does not have enough money to spend on food". Well, usually the former is a female and the latter a male. But, that's not the case in point.

    Children did not have to care whether they had abs, or stretch marks, or a double chin. They did not know what a thigh gap meant, and did not have to bother with pimples outbreak. They did not have to look at an amazing plate of pork chops, and choose to have one serving of plain bread. They did not have to look at a bottle of coke, and opt for plain water.

    Of course, people would say "why don't you exercise then?". As children, exercise was running around playing catching, or playing on the playground. Have you tried going to a local playground at the age of 19? You'd get stares from so many adults, some whipping out their phones to snap a photo of you. And, you get the story.

    Have you tried playing catching at 19 year old? Adults throw a awful look at you, and the phone is whipped out again.

    As children, they just nag at the child to be careful and move on with their lives.

    How do you expect us to exercise while having fun, like we did before? Now, the only exercise that doesn't get us dirty looks is running miles and miles quietly, or heading to the gym. That is, if we find enough time to exercise in the midst of our hectic schedules. ((of doing work))

    //

    As children, we get to get away with so many stuff that we would have to be responsible enough to know better as adults. We were allowed to play rough with a boy in the playground without being given a glare by passerby. Our dreams were real, however impractical they were. Parents held us tight and kept us warm, despite nagging everyday.

    As young adults, going through the transitional period between a teenager and adult, we no longer feel that way. We begin to understand these "responsibilities" better and can no longer use the excuse that we are still young. Our responsibilities are huge, because we are the generation that will eventually be Singapore in the near future.

    Maybe that is why we hate children, maybe that is why we detest children who act the way they do, the way we did years ago. Maybe the reason why we hate them so much, is because we can no longer go back to those days. We can no longer have that immature childhood days back, and we hate that they still have it. That, we miss being a child.

    //

    Speaking of children, here's an artiste that still looks like a child no matter how I look at her. However, I've recently really liked her songs so I'm not going to criticise her further. Ariana Grande has nice songs, even though she can't sing live. #truth