Surely another way to portray ‘Marilyn’

The Marilyn Monroe statue put up in downtown Chicago seems to skirt around the “pervert laws” — especially circumventing the dirty old men with black patent leather shoes with hidden cameras and mirrors?

It’s pretty clever of the male artist to titillate the adolescent middle-age men with a little soft-core porn. However, it’s a sad commentary on the life of Marilyn Monroe who had aspired to be a great dramatic actress with depth and character only to be reduced to a sexual icon. I would rather that a statue of Mother Teresa or my favorite aviator, Amelia Earhart were ennobled in a place of prominence rather than that statue of Marilyn Monroe.

“Norma Jean’ had a sad life of sexual exploitation and never found true happiness, and she died tragically. I loved all her coy sweetness and she exuded sensuality, but after this poor woman’s death, I would rather the sculptor had taken a more sensitive approach to portraying her — not as a commodity to exploit but maybe he could have shown her in a way that she would have preferred: “a very sensitive real woman” who wanted so much to be more than just an erotic icon.

Now I suppose a female artist should put up a gigantic statue of Representative Weiner in his underwear to appease the appetites of women? When a man does it, it’s considered tasteful, but if a woman artist dare put up a statue of Weiner or Clinton in their underwear, well, you definitely would hear cries of poor taste. But, then, they are not dead yet. It’s OK to do it when the person is dead?

Valerie Benson

Warrenville