People Are Outraged By The Marilyn Monroe And JFK Scene In "Blonde" — Here's Why
This post contains descriptions of sexual assault.
By now, you've probably heard about all the backlash surrounding the Marilyn Monroe pseudo-biopic Blonde.
Based on Joyce Carol Oates' novel of the same name, Blonde reimagines "the complicated life of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe." And a lot of this reimagining has caused significant outrage online.
In fact, the dark subject matter and depiction of sexual assault made Blonde the first Netflix-produced film rated NC-17.
The one moment that has seemed to stir up the most criticism and backlash is the JFK scene. In the scene, Marilyn — played by Ana de Armas — is dragged to the room of "the president," who clearly resembles President John F. Kennedy.
There has been a longstanding rumor that Marilyn and JFK had an affair, but there is no evidence to support this.
"Am I meat to be delivered?" Marilyn — who appears to be drugged — asked the two Secret Service men.
She then goes into the president's room, who motions for her to sit on the bed. "Don't be shy. Come on," he said to her. This is all happening while JFK is on the phone refuting claims that he "molested" a gubernatorial aide in Texas and had an inappropriate "sexual liaison" with a staffer.
He then pushes Marilyn's head down to perform oral sex on him. The scene depicts Marilyn's face super zoomed in as she performs the sex act. She disassociates, as we hear Ana de Armas' voice narrate her internal dialogue. JFK then calls her a "dirty slut."
The scene faced backlash online, with people saying it went too far:
this scene with jfk is actually insane... andrew dominik you're going to hell #blonde
The two minute long blowjob scene filmed with an extreme closeup on Ana DeArmas’s face while she’s sucking JFK off is where I officially and mentally checked out. Disrespectful.
@unknowntrin The president scene with JFK was weird and disgusting and half the movie she was naked ….. this movie is perverted and weird and straight garbage ….that made her seem like she had to please men her whole career … the jfk scene really threw me off cause fk no
The JFK scene is so far the worst scene of the movie. Whatever the fuck they trying to do was so poorly executed and just flat out unnecessary. So stupid
i did NOT need to see marilyn giving jfk a blowjob for 2 minute of with closeup on her face while a weird ass speech is going in her head.. the amount of exploitation is SICK
Others said the scene just isn't historically accurate:
Lie #3: the widely believed affair with JFK.Marilyn and JFK briefly met only 4 times and each time was in public at events they separately attended. The only *rumored* instance where they slept together was in March of 1962 at Bing Crosby’s home.
marilyn did not have an affair with jfk.. it's almost 2023 this outdated rumour/discussion that came from men's fantasies needs to die https://t.co/igP4BpKNlw
