It’s hard to imagine two women more different than Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn, but Sarah Churchwell argues in today’s Guardian that they each represent different strands of blonde ambition:
‘If Thatcher was the “iron lady”, Marilyn was also likened to iron, which some may find surprising. We are far more accustomed to a despairing, damaged Marilyn than a tough one. Her longtime acting coach and companion, Paula Strasberg, much mocked in My Week with Marilyn, offered a memorable description of the woman she saw as a surrogate daughter: “Marilyn has the fragility of a female but the constitution of an ox. She is a beautiful hummingbird made of iron.” A journalist who interviewed Marilyn said that “all actresses are made of steel,” but “Monroe was cast in an even mightier mould than most of them.” The writer Karen Blixen met Monroe and remarked: “I shall never forget the almost overpowering feeling of unconquerable strength and sweetness which she conveyed. I had all the wild nature of Africa amicably gazing at me with mighty playfulness.” We don’t associate Marilyn with might anymore, but we should: people who knew her recognised her power. Monroe and Thatcher were both iron ladies.’
