1. http://www.marilynmanson.com/ Marilyn
Manson
Marilyn Manson is an American musician and artist known for his
controversial stage persona and image as the lead singer of the
band Marilyn Manson. His stage name was created from the
names of actress Marilyn Monroe and convicted murder-planner
Charles Manson. He has a long legacy of being depicted in the
media as a bad influence on children. The seemingly outrageous
styles for which he models and the controversy surrounding his
lyrics have led to his very pronounced public appeal.
Marilyn Manson is an American musician/artist who is known
and famous for his controversial style and as the lead singer of the
bad Marilyn Manson. His stage name itself is very symbolic as it’s
been influenced by two well known people of the past, Marilyn
Monroe who represents feminine perfection in the 1950’s and
Charles Manson who represented all that was rotten in the late
60’s.
The real Marilyn Monroe was hidden behind media representation
of her and the facts about her life has been changed and confused

2. by myths and rumours, the Monroe everyone knows now is an
icon in a white dress and not a real women. On the other hand
Charles Manson was a convicted murder-planner and had led
others to commit horrific murders. Similarly to Monroe Manson
is known more through myths and legends rather than facts
however in Marilyn Monroe’s case she was an icon of beauty and
perfection whereas Charles Manson was an icon of murder and
cold blood. These two people or characters hold a symbolic
meaning either negative or positive and Marilyn Manson has
taken both iconic names and juxtaposed them to create a name
that reflects perfection and horror; beauty and the beast.
Marilyn Manson work is mostly shocking and disturbing, he plays
with the audiences expectations and regularly questions normality
and the acceptance of values. He creates these ideas through
representing gender and sexuality. In society gender is seen to be
clear and defined as binary oppositions, which are masculinity and
femininity which have associated qualities with each label.
In Marilyn’s video we see that he wears unusual clothing that
doesn’t fit in either of the masculinity or femininity
expectations, he denies himself any gender at all wearing a latex
body suit where all indications of gender has been removed. By
juxtaposing these techniques he goes beyond gender and sexuality
stereotypes and expectations. He explores the idea of gender
being flexible and avoids limitations and shows his audience that
life isn’t black and white its colourful.
Marilyn Manson explores his name and juxtaposes beautiful
people in ugly environments or unsettling situations which forces

3. the audience to view them in unexpected ways, even though they
are beautiful the audience don’t see the glamour and beauty
instead they see the ugliness and gruesome. Marilyn Manson uses
make up to create bizarre faces rather than cover up the face and
make it beautiful; he also uses aspects of the media like his image,
his music videos and his lyrics to convey that everyone has
repressed emotions and he creates and outlet with the audience
getting in trouble. As we all have to hide behind our society’s
identity to fit in and Marilyn creates a world where we can let go
and explore our deepest emotions and secrets, he lets us indulge
in our ideas and experience those dark thoughts that we all try to
hide.