Netflix’s Blonde deals with the story of Norma Jean Mortenson, best known for being Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, as the film reimagines her bitter life in fiction based on the novel of Joyce Carol Oates. Unfortunately, the movie is not everyone’s cup of tea. Emily Ratajkowski, a model and actress known for her roles in Gone Girl, I Feel Pretty, and Welcome Home, took it to her TikTok account to criticize Netflix’s Blonde as she unveils her “B*tch Era 2022.” Ratajkowski said, “So I’ve been hearing a lot about this Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde, which I haven’t seen yet, but I’m not surprised to hear it’s yet another movie fetishizing female pain, even in death.” Ratajkowski exclaimed, “We love to fetishize female pain. Look at Amy Winehouse. Look at Britney Spears. Look at the way we obsess over Diana’s death. Look at the way we obsess over dead girls and serial killers. Watch any CSI episode, and it’s this crazy fetishization of female pain and death.”
READ MORE: Blonde: Joyce Carol Oates Credits #MeToo Movement For The Controversial Netflix Biopic
Ratajkowski encourages other women to embrace anger instead of pain, “I was thinking about it, and you know what’s kind of hard to fetishize? Anger. Anger is hard to fetishize. So I have a proposal. I think we all need to be a little more pissed off. I’m going to be in my witch era. 2022, baby, is my bitch era.” Not only Ratajkowksi has this opinion on the film as a lot of people found the film unwatchable or intolerable. Blonde received an NC-17 rating, the first for Netflix, as it tackles sensitive topics such as suicide, drugs, sex, and abuse.
Meanwhile, the author of Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates, took it to Twitter to defend the film of Andrew Dominik on Netflix, “Surely Andrew Dominik meant to tell Norma Jeane’s story sincerely.” Oates added, “I think it was/is a brilliant work of cinematic art obviously not for everyone. surprising that in a post#MeToo era the stark exposure of sexual predation in Hollywood has been interpreted as “exploitation.”” Indeed, it is not for everyone due to the explicit scenes and heavy message that Blonde has. It depicts Marilyn Monroe at her lowest, and in the most gruesome parts of her life reimagined. Given its NC-17 rating, no one under the age of 18 should be allowed to see the film. Blonde stars Ana De Armas as Norma Jean Mortenson/ Marilyn Monroe and it is currently streaming on Netflix.
