One of the most famous photos of sex icon Marilyn Monroe comes from the movie "The Seven Year Itch".
She stood in the subway vent, her white slip dress blown high by the wind, and she had to cover the hem of the skirt with her hand.
It's a refusal to peep, but it's a classic because it evokes reverie.
Marilyn Monroe is probably the most tired of being watched.
In the manuscript she wrote:
"People are used to seeing me as a mirror rather than a person. They couldn't see me, they could only see their own obscene thoughts. ”
Even after her death, her portrait rights were fought over, because it implied great commercial value.
The photographer clashes with the heir to Monroe's estate
In his critique of modern visual culture, Foucault said, "We are all prey to the gaze."
This is reminiscent of a modern-born profession that has been watched — idols.
Idols have a glamorous appearance and a hot gaze from the public, but there are also shadows behind this gaze.
Because as long as you are in the position of being viewed, both men and women are objects.
It needs to be flattered, it needs to be pleased, and it is necessary to give up a part of the subjectivity of the individual.
Come in the dirt, go in the window
On the eve of the dissolution of Rocket Girl 101, the Rainbow Choir adapted their hit single "Calories".
One of the lyrics reads:
"Come out of the dirt and go into the window."
The great thing about the idol industry is that watching has become a business.
The same people who grow out of the dirt, but the idol is re-forged by the mold and becomes a commodity placed in the window.
The originator of idol manufacturing is Hollywood.
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Hollywood implemented a star system with stars as the core of film production, creating a number of screen idols.
In a patriarchal social environment, these idols cater to the visual desires of male audiences to the greatest extent.
Marilyn Monroe, along with her signature curly blonde hair, flaming red lips, and beauty mole, became a sex symbol that spread around the world.
But the brown-haired, face that had no moles or swelling desires, was little known.
Marilyn Monroe (left) Norma Joan Peck (right) ben is one person
The former is clearly an artificial product, but it seems to be more valuable than a real person.
"She" can release endless sexual signals, flirting with the camera anytime, anywhere.
Even after the owner of the body dies, it can still generate nearly ten million dollars in annual income.
Fashion, perfumes, LEGO toys... Marilyn Monroe, who was smiling slightly squinting, was printed everywhere.
From the living person to the commodity that can be copied and consumed, it is the process of squeezing the will of the individual and consuming the body and spirit.
Idols must show a certain degree of subservience, and manufacturers are more willing to choose "raw materials" that are at the mercy of the good, such as girl stars.
Their names are determined by others, and their bodies are completely under the control of others.
Like Elizabeth Taylor, when she starred in [The Jade Goddess Foal] at the age of 12, she was plucked from her baby teeth by MGM.
Idol child star Xiulan Temple, innocence is over-consumed early.
On screen, she always wears a playful curly hair, dances cute and neat tap dances, and her fleshy face and sweet dimples are full of vitality, which healed the United States during the Great Depression.
She is a well-deserved box office champion, with more than 70 percent of Americans spending money to see her in the cinema every week.
That's why then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt dared to say, "As long as we still have Shulan Temple, our country will be fine." ”
But behind the screen, she entered dance school at the age of 3.
After entering the set at the age of 6, she had to learn how to put on a "vibrant" expression every day, obediently waiting for the hair stylist to perm 56 rolls for her.
She had to kiss a lot of people, even nasty people, which was a set etiquette.
Because her mother could not accompany her at the scene, she was knocked to the ground or suffered from diaper pins.
The price of disobedience is terrible.
In her autobiography Child Star, Xiulan Temple mentions a black box containing ice cubes, and the troublemakers are sent into confinement.
"The ice gradually melted, and the dirty air became bone-chilling. No child wants to lie in the cold waterhole, but standing is very tired, and in desperation, the ice cube becomes the only place to sit. ”
"This practice can also easily cause ear infections, blepharitis, boils or gastrointestinal infections, but as long as the shooting is not delayed, our teachers do not care much about these." The health of the child should be taken care of by the mother. ”
Temple was locked up in a black box several times, but it didn't help her to tell her mother.
Mom only thinks she's too imaginative because she's acting all day.
So she used her strong survival instinct:
"Concentrate, stay smart, do what you're asked to do, and do it the first time, without mistakes or wasting time."
Worse than these encounters, Temple was maliciously made the object of pedophile's desires.
Wrapped in diapers, she filmed a lot of adult-oriented content.
For example, opening his mouth to pick up milk poured on the table, posing as a prostitute and flirting with an "American soldier" who is also wrapped in a diaper.
She wore an overly short skirt and was held high by one strong hand after another.
Temple subconsciously pulled her skirt down
In addition, her identity in the film is often orphaned, adopted by a single middle-aged man.
Her character would lie in the ear of the "father" to show him love and even marry him.
Temple is known as the "little lover of the masses", which is a good word.
The painter Salvador Dali even created the Portrait of Shulan Temple, transplanting her face onto a Sphinx lion with plump breasts.
Temple's innocence became a fig leaf, and when she grew up, she passed the shelf life of innocence.
After missing out on [The Wizard of Oz] transformation opportunity, she had no drama to shoot and returned to ordinary life.
As for her 39 years old, she actively participated in politics with the training and influence she had cultivated in her childhood, which is all a post-story.
In a sense, it is a blessing to pass the breath early.
Judy Garland, who rubbed shoulders with Shulan Temple at the same turning point of fate, did not have this luck.
Her acting career soared to the age of 16 because of Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz.
For child stars, this is the age of hovering on the alert line.
MGM positioned Judy as the "American Girl Next Door", wearing a bodysuit and chest wrap and children's makeup.
Her fame was harvested quickly, and she worked more than ten hours a day.
To control her development, the company only allowed her to drink black coffee and chicken soup.
When you are hungry, you take medicine, every four hours; when you are tired, you take amphetamines and smoke 80 cigarettes a day.
Biographical film [Judy]
Under this torture, Judy had to see a psychiatrist regularly from the age of 18.
At the age of 29, she was dismissed by MGM because she was "old".
Drug dependence shattered her body and mind, and she almost made a comeback, but she was screwed up because of her unstable state.
Judy committed suicide countless times in her life, eventually dying at the age of 47.
There is nowhere to escape the power of prey
As an idol of a commodity, it is impossible to escape the fate of being subject to people.
They must accept the gaze of the masses, but they will inevitably become the prey of power.
These people can decide everything about the commodity —
What position is placed in the window, whether to withdraw after the change of season...
So the relationship between idols and the system of power is complex, having to be attached to, and at the same time being hurt.
Hollywood has always had the saying of "couch audition".
In the casting office, a sofa is usually placed.
Actors are forced to have sex with producers on the couch in exchange for a chance to appear on camera.
Marilyn Monroe once confessed:
"I went to bed with the producer, everybody did that, you don't do it, there's another girl waiting outside the door."
Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are notorious for sexual assault
In fact, this "sofa" is not limited to any office, and the prey is not divided into men and women.
Bern Anderson, who starred in "The World's First Beautiful Boy" who starred in "Venice of the Souls", tasted the pain of being "hunted" at the age of 16.
After the premiere, director Visconti took him to a gay bar.
The agent simply left it alone, and the only guardian, Grandma, went to bed early.
In the documentary "The World's First Beautiful Boy", Bourne recalls the experience at that time:
"All that looks at me is greedy, moist lips, rolling tongues. In their minds, it was as if they were already giving me a moment. ”
Feeling overwhelmed, he desperately poured himself a drink and "can't remember how he got home."
While invited to make a film in Paris, Bourne was harassed by all sorts of rich and powerful people.
The house, the food and drink, the gifts were overwhelming, but to him it was only a shackle.
That movie eventually aborted and looked more like a pretense to lure "prey" into the bait.
In all the interviews, Bourne was secretive about his experience in Paris, but expressed that it was "almost the only thing he regretted."
Disney child star Ricky Garcia has stepped into a similar trap.
He followed his agent on a "songwriting trip" that banned his parents from traveling, and was frantically drunk at the party, not knowing when he had lost consciousness.
When he woke up the next morning, he found himself lying naked in bed, next to his agent still asleep.
For four years after this incident, Ricky was sexually assaulted or abused by his agent every week.
He even became a "sex slave", being casually transferred to the broker's friends and business associates for "use", both men and women.
In the TV series "Daming Palace Words", Wu Zetian said something like this:
"A man, as long as you put him in a woman's situation, he will become a woman." 」
The so-called "woman's situation" can be understood with the help of the "rape theory" of feminist writer Susan Brown Miller.
While studying the phenomenon of male-to-male rape in prisons, Susan Brownmiller found that rape had nothing to do with sexual orientation.
It still points to power.
"In this particular environment of male violence, establish a mandatory hierarchy of the weak below and the strong above."
Male idols hunted by power have become "women" created by the day after tomorrow.
But in terms of the overall environment, the situation of female idols is more difficult.
South Korea has released survey data, 45.3% of female artists have been asked to accompany alcohol, and 62.8% have been asked for sexual companionship by socially empowered people.
The suicide of Zhang Ziyan, which caused a sensation in the whole of South Korea, was unsuccessful after several investigations, because there was a Figure of a Korean Chaebol standing behind it.
Zhang Ziyan left 50 suicide notes revealing the inhuman torture she had suffered.
She was once forced by the brokerage company to sleep with 31 political, commercial and entertainment executives within 5 years.
According to South Korean media reports, this includes Ren Youzai, the former son-in-law of South Korea's Samsung Group.
"Whenever I put on new clothes, it's the day I have to sleep with a new man."
Brokerage company owners specifically transformed the company into a "sex guest house"
Sometimes Zhang Ziyan is filming in South Korea and has to immediately interrupt the "service" of shooting to Thailand.
Even on her parents' death day, she could not refuse.
Because she couldn't bear the consequences of rejection, whether it was being beaten by the boss of the company or the 1 billion won that had to be paid for the default.
On the eve of suicide, she was even arranged to go to the hospital for a ligature.
The report was ineffective, and the South Korean police, under pressure from the powerful, ignored her pleas for help.
Desperate, Zhang Ziyan could only roar in her suicide note:
"Even if you become a ghost, you have to take revenge."
In 2018, more than 200,000 South Koreans petitioned the Blue House for a thorough investigation of The Chang's Ziyan affair.
In the end, however, only the owner of the brokerage firm was punished, and the others mentioned in the suicide note were safe and sound.
Even in the movie [Plaything] adapted from the Zhang Ziyan incident, the actress Min Zhixian, who played Zhang Ziyan, was also banned in disguise.
Stills from the movie [Plaything].
This unshakable power system does not know how many Zhang Ziyan have been swallowed.
Idols are, of course, living people, but the professional nature of idols requires them to become objects.
It starts with watching, is consumed commercially, is hunted by power, and differs only in degree.
And that's the price that the glittering idols bear.
Focusing on the "world's first beautiful teenager" Bourne Anderson, the documentary about the cost of idols [the world's first beautiful teenager] has been launched on the current movie APP.