Was Marilyn Monroe a Feminist?

I’ve almost finished a new biography of Marilyn Monroe, to be published in August to coincide with the 50th anniversary of her death. Feminist scholar and historian Lois Banner wrote Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox over a number of years, interviewing an enormous cast of people who knew the beautiful and tragic star. Her approach was to examine Marilyn’s life from a specifically feminist point of view, which has never been done before. Here is an edited extract from the book published in the Guardian newspaper, with the headline asking readers to consider whether Marilyn was a feminist herself. What do you think?