At a 2021 protest, the Women’s March Foundation chanted that the 34,000-pound statue was misogynistic and exploitative. The Committee to Relocate Marilyn claims it’s mad at the placement of Marilyn because it blocks a museum road.
Meanwhile, in 2020, the art museum’s executive director at the time, Louis Grachos, was definitely triggered over Marilyn’s underwear.
“What message does that send to our young people, our visitors and community to present a statue that objectifies women, is sexually charged and disrespectful?” Grachos asked.
Sexually charged? Maybe if you’re 75 and jacked up on Cialis.
[I’ve inserted a 2013 picture of the statue from our media library. The statue captures the iconic scene from The Seven Year Itch (1954), a scene that infuriated her then-husband Joe DiMaggio for its sexual nature. It’s relatively tame now, of course, but that won’t matter to the permanently aggrieved. Their complaint is that tourists take pictures of the statue from directly between her legs, but I don’t think that really qualifies as “upskirt,” nor is it done for sexual satisfaction. Besides, how else could one create a statue that captures Monroe’s oeuvre without displaying her sexuality? — Ed]
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