Marilyn Muse to Abuse

Photography by Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix in close collaboration with actress and artist Agnieszka Dellert-Dellfina as Marilyn Monroe Prints by order only TEXT about the project......

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"The abused the lonely the magnetic the beautiful...

Sweet dreams are made of these

Who am I to disagree?

Travel the world and the seven seas

Everybody's looking for something

Some of them want to use you

Some of them want to get used by you

Some of them want to abuse you

Some of them want to be abused”

Eurythmics

In the following photographs artist and actress Agnieszka Dellert-Dellfina is portraying the abused Marilyn Monroe in front of the camera of Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix.

Her screen persona was childlike and innocent, but she gained attention and affection through a sexual persona. This is the epitome of many sexualized and sexually abused children –gaining attention and affection from their abuser and applying that behavior to obtain favors, attention from others, and some form of ‘love.’ This pattern often follows them into adulthood. Marilyn Monroe was one of the first, if not the very first, celebrity to speak openly about being sexually abused as a child. She came out with her experience in an era when abuse was simply not discussed. No one really took her seriously and she was even mocked about it. However, some people, who knew her, say that during the weeks before her death Marilyn was still speaking of the abuse. The little Norma Jean was moved from different foster families because men kept trying to, or succeeded, in sexually molesting her. Each time, Marilyn was the one removed and placed elsewhere, not the abuser. So a very strong message was given to Marilyn and it stayed with her throughout her life. The message was that she was the bad one.

Marilyn was horribly ridiculed for speaking publicly about the sexual abuse, and that both the molestation and the rejection she received from those she confided in, hurt her deeply throughout her life. Many of Marilyn’s male biographers have tried to discredit her disclosures and presented them as attention seeking. I believe that this stems from men not wanting to see Marilyn Monroe as a victim of horrible sexual abuse. Most men only want to imagine Marilyn as a sexed up vivacious woman who was turned on with an innocent sex drive. Most men do not want to know that she was sexually abused as a child. Most men would rather keep their fantasies about her.

Marilyn’s mother on the other hand accused her of being a slut. At times Marilyn may have set out to subconsciously prove her mother’s claim. She was known for wearing paper thin, tight, low-cut dresses that provoked laughter from peers and caused journalists to write derogatory remarks about her. Women who have been sexually abused as children often dress provocatively.

It is actually a paradox that Marilyn Monroe has been labeled America’s sex symbol and remains so. Men’s fantasies have been of the sexualized and child-like manner in which she presented herself to the world. Those very fantasies may be based on a persona that was rooted in being sexually violated as a child.

Marilyn Monroe died on August 5th 1962. Her death was officially ruled as a suicide, although there are many fans who feel people with power and authority murdered her. I believe she was murdered,absolutely, but I believe Marilyn was murdered by having her innocence stolen by men, who many years earlier, had decided that their sexual degeneracy was more important than the innocence of a child. Even if men in power did have Marilyn killed, it doesn’t really matter because, if she was sexually abused, she figuratively died somewhere in her childhood already.