Obsession

 

Many Marilyn Monroe fans were up in arms about a month ago when Lady Gaga tweeted this fake quote in an effort to inspire body confidence in young women (and to detract from the naysayers remarking on her recent weight gain).

I go back and forth about this quote. When it pops up on social media sites, I can’t help sighing as I roll my eyes at the screen. Yet, it’s the erroneous attribution that aggravates me, not the content of the quote. And we have to ask ourselves if it’s really worth it to dismantle an illusion that might inspire a heightened sense of self-esteem in others.

I don’t have an answer. Of course I hate to see young girls measuring their worth by their waistlines. But how helpful can a fake quote really be? It’s a sad state when the entire foundation of a person’s confidence is built on the faulty notion that a woman who lived half a century ago wore a size 14(and she did…by 1950s standards).

BBC News published an article in 2010 titled “Is Our Obsession with Size Zero Damaging Health?” In short, yes it is (no surprise there). However, I would venture to suggest that size obsession isn’t as dangerous as body obsession in general. Indeed, in discussing female role models, the writer says, “Young women seeking a sense of self-esteem, self-identity and confident femininity are more vulnerable to society's seductive messages suggesting that in order to be worthy, sexy, successful, powerful and happy they must pursue the perfect body at all costs.”

What is “the perfect body?” Though the article as a whole implies that the ideal body is thin, the writer doesn’t explicitly define the parameters. Couldn’t it be just as damaging for a “size zero” wearer to wish she wore a 14 to look like Monroe?

The point is that, size notwithstanding, all women (and perhaps men, for that matter) are apt to feel worthless in a society that values them for their bodies rather than for their intelligence, ideas and compassion—their humanity. More than 50 years after her death, people are still under the entirely misguided (and infuriating) impression that Marilyn Monroe was a “dumb blonde who couldn’t act,” but everyone has a comment to make about her dress size.

The above quote is a testament to this, and the most maddening part of it all is that it gets passed off as empowering.

Patriarchy at its finest…

Let me know how you feel about it!

 

 

"Famous quotes need famous mouths." -Ralph Keyes

This recently appeared on my Facebook feed. As my mind absorbed the words, my fake quote senses went wild. Sure enough, there exists no legitimate source connecting any part of this to President Abraham Lincoln. According to Snopes.com, the quote was actually penned by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. William John Henry Boetcker as the “Industrial Decalogue” (among other titles).

Interestingly, many believe the quote came to be attributed to Lincoln in the same way last week’s Jessica Dovey quote came to be the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr. This is yet another case of a simple mistake attaching itself to historical legend, destined to be forever romanticized and propagated by those with contemporary agendas.

It’s no surprise that this quote resurfaced today of all days—four days after the 2012 election. Currently, it’s making its way around social media sites as the new favorite quote of disgruntled Mitt Romney supporters. I’m not quite sure how Obama’s philosophy that “the wealthiest Americans pay a little more” is akin to “destroying the rich,” but you guys can think what you will about that…

The point, though, is that Abraham Lincoln did not think this way (at least as far as we can prove).

Thoughts? How come so many people find it difficult to own their ideas without a quote by a historical figure?

Jessica Dovey: a lie that revealed truth

 

 “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.”

Sound familiar? Some of you might remember this Martin Luther King Jr. quote that circulated the Internet after Osama Bin Laden’s death in 2011. Like many others, I’m a fan of this particular fake quote. Indeed, it resonated with so many people that the Atlantic ran an article in May of that year in which the writer traced the quote’s journey to cyber-fame. English teacher Jessica Dovey had written it as her Facebook status, which she concluded with a legitimate King quote:

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

At some point, her quote fused with King’s quote, and she was called (quite poignantly, I think) “the woman whose words accidently became Martin Luther King’s.”

So, what is a fake quote-debunker to think of this? Dovey’s is not the story of a woman who maliciously tried to deceive the world. She expressed her thoughts, and thousands agreed with her. King or Dovey, the idea is the same. And isn’t it uplifting to know that the words of a 24-year-old schoolteacher can have the same impact as if they were uttered by one of the most revered human rights activists in history? The man who gave what many claim to be the greatest speech of all time—he could have been anyone.

As much as I push for the proper attribution of quotes, I see this particular mistake as a testament to the power of the human voice. I’d like to think that Dovey’s quote could have gotten around on its own. At any rate, it should have, considering the degree to which it obviously echoed the view of many. I have a theory that several fake quotes originate with people afraid of the “anonymous” attribution. Collectively, we need to abandon the notion that only celebrities possess ideas worth disseminating.

Any suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

Irritating political quote debunked

"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."

Many of us have probably been faced with this oft-repeated “Winston Churchill” quote at some point. Only last night, a good friend of mine was telling me how infuriated she gets when her conservative uncle lectures her with it. Because isn’t it wonderful to be told that if you haven’t abandoned all of your core beliefs by a certain age, you must be somehow lacking in intelligence?

Just for the record, I don’t like any more that the quote deems young conservatives “heartless.” I just tend to find that most of the people who actually enjoy this quote are older conservatives—you know the individuals whose current and future dispositions aren’t at stake.

So, I was thrilled to learn from WinstonChurchill.org (where you can actually sign up to receive a free Churchill newsletter subscription) that the quote is false. In its refutation of the statement, it cites Paul Addison of Edinburgh University:

“Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of [his wife] Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?”

It should be mentioned that the meanings behind “liberal” and “conservative” change continually and have changed significantly since Churchill’s time, though no one can be completely sure of certain words’ social interpretations in a given era (unless he or she actually lived in that era). Nevertheless, the quote in question seems to be using our contemporary definitions of the terms—extra proof that Churchill didn’t say it.

The Washington Post recently published an opinion piece titled “Liberals and Conservatives Don’t Just Vote Differently. They Think Differently.” The title says it all. The writer argues that a liberal mentality is characterized by openness to experience, whereas the conservative mind tends to desire closure and structure and to resist change. I appreciate an article that engrains “liberal and conservative” in personality instead of in conscious choice. We form opinions based on what we’ve seen and done, and the fact that the quote in question would label people “stupid” or “heartless” based on who they are at any given point in their lives is, I think, pretty insulting and simplistic.

So, I’m very happy to know it’s false! Let me know what you think!

 

David Barton and the Founding Fathers

I never really thought about fakes quotes attributed to the founding fathers until I came across this video from 2010. In it, MSNBC explores a growing movement to dissolve the separation of church and state. Leading the coalition, activist David Barton wrote a book called The Myth of Separation in which he propagates fakes quotes to give historical credence to his claim that the founding fathers wanted only for government to stay out of religion—not vice versa. Readers of Barton’s work will find (among several others) this “James Madison” quote:

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves…according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Of course, this quote is completely fabricated, as anyone who has read his sourced quotes will immediately recognize. Indeed, Barton’s latest book titled The Jefferson Lies was pulled from shelves two months ago when his own lies were discovered.

MSNBC calls attention to an interesting phenomenon. Namely, when people hold unsupported opinions, they rewrite history. Maybe this is the key to understanding how any fake quote comes about. When people hold certain (usually misguided) preconceptions about another, they write quotes which reinforce those preconceptions.

Thus, the quality which renders false quotes annoying is the same quality which makes them salient and easily propagated: they cater to myth and popular misconceptions.

Questionable Oscar Wilde Quotes

We all know an Oscar Wilde quote when we read one. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” This brilliant, illogically true statement from Lady Windermere’s Fan has the late writer’s name written all over it. And his literary repertoire overflows with equally funny and meaningful witticisms. Doesn’t each of his quotes have a certain unmistakable “ring” to it? I definitely think so, which is why I find the many fake quotes attributed to him fairly easy to distinguish.

“Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.”

Anybody who has searched “Oscar Wilde quotes” on Google has likely come across this famous statement. I love the quote, but it just doesn’t seem to me like one Wilde would have said. Compare the above quote to this one:

“How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being?”

Doesn’t this sound so much more like Oscar Wilde? Somehow, this quote is funnier, more outrageous and more absurdly relevant. The fake quote expresses the same basic idea, but I think it’s too straightforward to have come from man it’s attributed to.

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”

Again, I adore this quote, but I think it’s too serious to have been said by Oscar Wilde. I have no doubt that he agreed with it because it echoes a phrase found in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray:

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.” Certainly, Wilde had much to say on this topic. His own works were frequently caught in controversies concerning “morality.”—controversies perpetuated by those unable to tolerate the satire directed at their own (and Wilde’s) way of life.

The two “faux” quotes above are questionable. They pop out at me as “fake,” but who can say for sure? Oscar Wilde himself wrote in The Importance of Being Earnest that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Maybe someday I (or one of you guys) will find sources for the statements above, but until then, I’m going to avoid attributing them to Wilde.

I find that The Quotations Page is pretty reliable (I always search “Marilyn Monroe quotes” to test these kinds of websites. It’s always reassuring ,too, if the site includes sources). You guys should check out the Oscar Wilde page (for amusement if nothing else)! With anyone, the more real quotes you read and the more interviews you watch, the better you’ll get at weeding out fake quotes.

 

Real quotes attributed to the wrong people...

Not every “faux” quote was born on the Internet. These two wonderful quotes do have verifiable sources but are frequently attributed erroneously.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found the name “Marilyn Monroe” at the bottom of this quote. It was actually said by feminist and historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in the 1970s (after Marilyn had died). Since then, Ulrich has given several lectures explaining the larger, complex ideas behind her famous statement and the implications those ideas hold for contemporary society.

I think we can agree that history has been shaped by people who were (in any time period) willing to step beyond the boundaries drawn by “normalcy” and “propriety.” The Feminist Movement may have been impossible without those who questioned women’s given “place” in a society. When Ulrich coined her famous phrase, she may have indeed had Marilyn Monroe in mind. Who knows? One could argue very strongly that Marilyn helped shape the course of feminism—perhaps without even realizing it. She lived her life in a way that said to all people (men and women), “sexuality is natural, it’s fun, and it’s innocent.” Interestingly, by not thinking too hard about sex herself, she altered the way hundreds of others viewed it. In her time, Marilyn Monroe was frequently deemed “vulgar.” Today, many hold her as a shining example of the liberated woman.

What irritates me most regarding this quote in its attribution to the late actress is the way in which people hold it as proof that Marilyn Monroe sought scandal. They view her as the original Hollywood “bad girl.” But they forget that “bad” in the 1950s was a far cry from “bad” in 2012.

Marilyn Monroe was and will always be Marilyn Monroe—one individual. Because our culture has changed, though, so has she. This may have been what Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was getting at. So, I can see why Marilyn is associated with this quote, but she definitely did not say it.

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

This quote is an excerpt from Sam Levenson’s poem, “Time-Tested Beauty Tips.” While this poem was one of Audrey Hepburn’s favorites, she did not write it. When you read the entire poem, you’ll recognize several “Audrey” quotes weaved into it.