Netflix’s new Marilyn Monroe biopic fails in many ways. It’s an explicit, unnecessary, exploitative mess, but according to some of the criticism levied against it, Blonde might just have done something right.
The film, released last week, is being criticized for being “anti-abortion propaganda.” Liberal media outlets are mad that the film depicts Marilyn speaking with her unborn fetuses, the first of which she aborts. The film is based on Joyce Carol Oates’s novel Blonde, from which the concept of Marilyn speaking with her unborn babies originates, though there’s no evidence she had an abortion in real life.
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In the film, after Marilyn is pressured to abort her first baby, she gets pregnant again. The image of a hyper-realistic fetus appears, asking her, “You won’t hurt me this time, will you?” Marilyn replies, “You’re not the same baby,” to which the fetus says, “That was me. It’s always me.”
Real-life Marilyn yearned to be a mother, and while her desires are somewhat cartoonishly depicted in Blonde, the feelings the movie portrays were real. Yet the idea that a pregnant woman might imagine a conversation with her unborn baby or feel regret over her abortion has made more than just the media mad. It even set off Planned Parenthood.
“As film and TV shapes many people’s understanding of sexual and reproductive health, it’s critical these depictions accurately portray women’s real decisions and experiences,” Caren Spruch, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s national director of arts and entertainment engagement, told the Hollywood Reporter.
Spruch is probably upset that she wasn’t invited to consult on the film. A few years ago, Spruch was featured in the Washington Post as “Planned Parenthood’s Secret Weapon.”
“Abortion rights may be losing in D.C.,” the article says, “but they’re winning in Hollywood. Part of the reason is Caren Spruch.” The feature goes on to explain that Spruch and her allies at Planned Parenthood work with Hollywood filmmakers to make their abortion storylines as positive as possible, having advised on an estimated 150-plus movies coming out of Tinseltown. And that was three years ago.
But Blonde was evidently not one of these movies, much to Spruch’s chagrin.
“While abortion is safe, essential health care, anti-abortion zealots have long contributed to abortion stigma by using medically inaccurate descriptions of fetuses and pregnancy,” she continued in her comment. “Andrew Dominik’s new film, Blonde, bolsters their message with a CGI-talking fetus, depicted to look like a fully formed baby.”
Gasp! A fetus that looks like a baby? There’s nothing “medically inaccurate” about that. Marilyn may have been early on in her pregnancy, but as pregnancy progresses, a fetus does look more and more baby-like. And as medical technology improves, so does our ability to recognize that.
Spruch isn’t done.
“Planned Parenthood respects artistic license and freedom,” she continued. “However, false images only serve to reinforce misinformation and perpetuate stigma around sexual and reproductive health care. Every pregnancy outcome — especially abortion — should be portrayed sensitively, authentically and accurately in the media. We still have much work to do to ensure that everyone who has an abortion can see themselves onscreen. It is a shame that the creators of Blonde chose to contribute to anti-abortion propaganda and stigmatize people’s health care decisions instead.”
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At this very moment, Spruch is probably scrambling to get Andrew Dominik on the phone to prevent him from creating another film without her divine inspiration. Despite her begrudging nod to artistic freedom, Spruch slams the mere depiction of a baby in the womb as “misinformation.” This sounds a lot like Stacey Abrams’s line that a fetus’s heartbeat is a “manufactured sound.” Parents in hospital rooms for years have listened for their unborn babies’ heartbeats with eagerness. They also have a certain image of what their baby is beginning to look like, and that image is not some piece of “propaganda.”
Planned Parenthood is simply mad that Blonde portrayed the reality of abortion. Sometimes, abortion is coerced and used to oppress women. Sometimes, women regret it. Spruch says she wants storylines to “portray women’s real decisions and experiences,” but what she really means is that anything that doesn’t fit her pro-abortion narrative is not just distasteful to her; it’s a piece of dangerous misinformation.
