To start...before my thesis...I would like to look at McLuhan’s use of Monroe in The Medium is the Massage.
McLuhan is highlighting the use of media as a manipulative tool, to propagate information and misinformation. I will explore this more in my thesis. As some background of the language used on this page, Premier Khrushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964. This image was taken from his visit to the United States in 1959 during a luncheon that was attended by Marilyn. The bolded text is a play on words, as it refers both to the Cold War, which lasted from 1947 to 1991, and the film Some Like it Hot, which starred Monroe and was released in the same year as this photograph was taken, 1959.
For McLuhan, Monroe is the icon--a sign whose form directly reflects the thing it signifies--for Hollywood. I would argue that Monroe, while iconic, is better analyzed as an agent subject capable of critique and influence than a passive object of propaganda.
I really like your approach of giving Monroe her own agency in the argument, rather than just having her stand-in as an object representative of something. It's a refreshing approach and I look forward to seeing your presentation!
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