By: Charlotte Aver
Many people have emulated Marilyn Monroe over the years, but current pop star Sabrina Carpenter may have more similarities than most people who try and pick up Monroe’s torch, and the reason is quite interesting. Behind the curly blonde hair, Marilyn Monroe was an actor, a natural performer, and a turning point in how Hollywood cast women. Sabrina Carpenter began as a child entertainer, is an actor, a singer and a producer.
Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1st, 1926 in Los Angeles. When she was 16 she went to work as a riveter making airplane parts in WWII; she stopped when she was ‘discovered’ by a photographer at 18 and signed with a modeling agency. She started as a pin up girl and was later found by an acting agency that led her into the world of the movies. During her time in Hollywood she appeared in 29 films, and she died with four more either never completed or released. At the height of her career she starred in several classics: ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes‘, ‘The Seven Year Itch’, and Some ‘Like It Hot’ are probably the best known. She died from a sleeping pill overdose and it is widely accepted as suicide.
Sabrina Carpenter was born on May 11, 1999 in Pennsylvania. She was discovered by the Disney channel when she placed third in a singing contest hosted by Miley Cyrus in 2009. She signed a contract with Disney’s Hollywood Records in 2014 and was cast in the lead role of ‘Girl Meets World’. Her contract specified that she release five albums marketed towards teens, and although it allowed her entry to the music industry, the contract held her back creatively. In 2024, she broke her contract after only four albums and signed with Island Records, releasing ’emails I can’t send’ with two hits “nonsense” and “feather”. She also released “Espresso” as a prelude to her album ‘Short n’ Sweet’. It went to number one on the Billboard charts and was her first true breakthrough song.
You might wonder what a 50’s pin up girl and a Disney child star could have in common; it has to do with their hair! They both play the role of the dumb blonde for the media, while in reality both are actually quite witty and smart. Marilyn Monroe was constantly criticized for almost anything she did, likewise Sabrina Carpenter is constantly criticized for even the smallest things.
The marketing for Marilyn Monroe cast her almost exclusively into dumb blonde roles constructed for the male gaze. While Monroe was a part of her image creation she grew frustrated that she was unable to break out of the typecasting and sexualization of her public persona. Many people assume this frustration is behind her presumed suicide. In the decade before Monroe was a star, most of the famous female actors were strong and less sexualized; they had a greater share of female audience than Monroe who catered to the male movie goers.
In contrast, Sabrina Carpenter is constantly criticized for targeting the male gaze, but she is doing so ironically. She is presenting herself as the breathless bimbo and at the same time calling out the idiocy of men’s actions in a witty way. If she was truly targeting a male audience, her concerts would not mainly be attended by women, so it is clear she is using the Monroe “dumb blonde effect” to her benefit.
Many pop stars cultivate the similarities between themselves and Marilyn Monroe because they want her success in Hollywood to boost their career. Entertainers and their managers attempt to use Monroe’s template to both increase their audience and invoke a sense of nostalgia for the “golden age” of Hollywood. Madonna is a perfect example of this behavior; her blonde hair, sexualized image and early music all referenced Monroe and she achieved huge success.
My theory is that Sabrina Carpenter is also leveraging the same template, but she is doing so with satire and a greater sense of her own agency. Where Marilyn Monroe was trapped by the image she created, Sabrina Carpenter will hopefully be able to control her own destiny.
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