The life of Marilyn Monroe would make an excellent Greek Tragedy, as can be seen in Netflix “Blonde,” an often ugly and always powerful story with a level of nudity that makes HBO’s Game of Thrones seem modest. This isn’t a recommendation to watch it as the story of Monroe’s exploitation is depicted in such graphic detail that it sometimes feels like real-time virtual abuse of actress Ana de Armas by director Andrew Dominik who was joined by producer Brad Pitt and others in creating a story of tension and destruction.
But for those who do, you’ll see such painful truth, brilliantly acted – abortion hurts women as well as ending the lives of precious babies in the womb – a reality that has Planned Parenthood howling to their friends in the press from Hollywood to New York.
The truth hurts.
As reported in The Cut: “There is a scene in the second half of the film — which has notably been marketed as a feminist take on Marilyn Monroe — in which the star … speaks to her fetus early on in a pregnancy. ‘You won’t hurt me this time, will you? Not what you did the last time?’ the fetus asks in the voice of a young child, referencing two of Monroe’s previous pregnancies and forced abortions shown in the film. The audience then sees inside Monroe’s uterus, where a full-grown baby resides (despite her not even showing yet). ‘I didn’t mean to,’ Monroe says. ‘Yes, you meant to. It was your decision,’ the fetus responds.”
It's hard to watch as Monroe’s struggle with what feels like an homage to Edger Allen Poe’s the Tell-Tale Heart, as the sound of a baby’s heartbeat sometimes drives her almost mad. That’s probably because of the innate understanding of most human beings that on a battlefield or in an emergency room, people rush to save those with a heartbeat rather than ending their existence. And for Monroe, that sound of life causes great grief.
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Research indicates that the movie is on to something as “fantasies about the aborted fetus was the next most frequently mentioned experience” after feelings of guilt by women who have had abortions.
Blonde is a technicolor word picture illustrating that the absence of a baby didn’t result in the absence of pain or problems.
The young Norma Jeane Baker had a crazy mother (literally, as in was institutionalized) and never knew her father (in the movie at least), which left her with a strong desire for a home and family. It was not to be.
The men she was with pressured her to abort to keep her at work, and in the movie, she mourns losing a child to abortion so that she can make a movie. The film illustrates the pain of the lie that women must choose work or family but can’t have both.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s director of arts and entertainment engagement told The Hollywood Reporter. “While abortion is safe, essential health care, anti-abortion zealots have long contributed to abortion stigma by using medically inaccurate descriptions of fetuses and pregnancy.”
What a silly soundbite.
All it takes is a simple internet search to see images of babies in the womb or to read about how beautifully and wonderfully they develop. What really bothers Planned Parenthood isn’t the biology of life, but the painful facts about abortion – that women can regret their abortions – that abortion always ends families.
Planned Parenthood doesn’t want you to see this movie because it doesn’t paint abortion in the happy talking points that made them billions during COVID. I can’t recommend it because the graphic depictions make it unfit for family viewing.
But real life is ugly sometimes, and abortion hurts women like Marilyn Monroe.
Kristi Stone Hamrick is Chief Media and Policy Strategist of Students for Life of America.
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