Description
Often reduced to a symbol of glamour, Marilyn Monroe was far more than the image projected onto her. Beneath the spotlight was a woman navigating power, control and expectation in a deeply patriarchal industry.
This event reexamines Monroe as a feminist icon, exploring her intelligence, agency and resistance to the roles imposed upon her. From her struggle for creative control to her complex relationship with fame, we look at how Marilyn challenged ideas of femininity, sexuality and authorship, and why her legacy continues to resonate in contemporary feminist conversations.
Reclaiming the woman behind the myth, this panel asks what Marilyn Monroe can still teach us about autonomy, image and gendered power today.
About the Historian
Suzie Kennedy
Suzie Kennedy is one of the world’s most famous Marilyn Monroe tribute actresses. Kennedy has portrayed Monroe for a number of Hollywood films and TV documentaries, including Blade Runner 2049, The Theory of Everything and Maria. She has appeared on television, in major adverts, and has modelled Monroe’s clothing for auction houses and museum exhibits.
About the Artist
Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax is a Research Fellow at the University of Brighton and a practising artist. She completed her PhD at Queen Mary University of London in 2023 and her monograph, Making Up the Star: Makeup, Femininity, Race and Ageing in Hollywood, is published by BFI/Bloomsbury. Other published writing on Monroe includes ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in Encounters with Marilyn Monroe and ‘Ghostly threads: Painting Marilyn Monroe’s white dresses’. In 2016 Lomax won the Contemporary British Painting Prize, her paintings are widely exhibited and have featured on numerous book covers.
About the Author
Julie Owen Moylan
Julie Owen Moylan is the author of three novels: That Green Eyed Girl, 73 Dove Street and Circus of Mirrors. Her debut novel, That Green Eyed Girl, was a Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month, official runner up for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, shortlisted for Best Debut at the Fingerprint Awards and featured at the Hay Festival as one of its ‘Ten at Ten’. 73 Dove Street was a Waterstones’ Books of 2023 and a Daily Mail Historical Fiction Book of the Year. As a filmmaker, Julie won the Celtic Media Award for her graduation film “BabyCakes” and Best Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival. Her writing has appeared in Sunday Express, The Independent, New Welsh Review and Good Housekeeping. Julie has an MA in Filmmaking, a qualification in Creative Writing & English Literature, and is a Faber Academy alumna.
About the Host
Saeed Khan
Saeed Khan is a cultural historian and commentator based at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he teaches in the departments of History and Global Studies. His academic expertise includes Islamic and Middle Eastern history, Islamic political thought, and transnational identities. Alongside his academic work, he is a frequent analyst for international media outlets. Saeed is the founder of the Center for the Study of Trans-Atlantic Diasporas, a policy institute focused on ethnic and immigrant communities in North America and Europe.
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