Women today suffer from a low self-image and poor self esteem. The reason for this has a lot to do with the messages women receive from media and how women are still portrayed as sex objects.
The key to self esteem is to accept yourself and not try to be someone or something you are not. We need to re-frame what it means to be a goddess.
Anna Agnes Bruckner talked recently about her upcoming role playing Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime Original Movie, “Anna Nicole.” I appreciated the research she did into Anna Nicole’s life which was certainly a rags to riches story, but this one did not have a happy ending.
I guess the question I have is why would a woman like Anna Nicole be considered an icon?
One of the questions Agnes asked herself was “how do you play someone so distinctive, so famous, and as one-of-a-kind as Anna Nicole Smith?”
She claims she had an amazing life. Despite coming from a small town in Texas and never having a good relationship with her mother, having a child and getting married at 18, becoming a stripper… I suppose what was noble is that she seemed to rise above it. But did she really?
Smith dropped out of high school and married Harold Marshal, an oil tycoon who was sixty two years older. I mean give me a break. Her claim to fame was gaining notoriety in Playboy ending up Playmate of the Year in 1993. A year later she appeared on the cover of New York magazine in an issue they did called White Trash Nation.
Apparently it was her goal to be the next Marilyn Monroe and sadly she Smith died on February 8, 2007 in a hotel room in Florida as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs… painkillers I believe.
Well what do you think was she white trash or iconic legend? Both labels miss the point and the question I have is why anyone would want to make a movie about her life? It does not fit the profile of an archetypal story which usually grants the movie success with the audience.
What is an archetypal story you may be wondering? As a screenwriter, story consultant and coach who uses the power of story for self-transformation I can tell you it is timeless… one to which we all universally respond. Here is the formula. First off we as an audience have to like and relate to character so we can experience the character vicariously.
Most importantly, at the end of the movie, the character has to arc or grow. There is usually a lesson learned whereby the character does not always get what they want but perhaps what they need.
Unless you rewrite the life of Anna Nicole Smith, I am not hopeful this will be a successful movie. The more important question we have to ask is why would we think of her as an icon?Anna Nicole Smith was not Venus. The archetype of Venus was powerful and not beholden to any man.
Perhaps this sheds some light on why so many women struggle with their self- image. In my practice, coaching mostly women for over ten years I found they struggle with an unattainable image that is culturally imposed.
We all want to be loved for who we are not what the culture puts out there as a so-called icon and does not fit the bill of heroine. That’s what we need more of today… more stories about women who are real heroines.
What is Depth Psychology?