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Who really said it

A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered

Not Marilyn Monroe — actually Clara Bow Clara Bow 1905–1965 · Silent-film star, Hollywood’s original “It Girl”
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The line was spoken by Clara Bow — the 1920s “It Girl” and Hollywood’s first great sex symbol — reflecting on Marilyn Monroe’s death in August 1962. Monroe herself did make a famous remark about being a sex symbol in her final Life interview, but it was a different one (“a sex symbol becomes a thing… I just hate to be a thing”). Over the decades Bow’s poignant sentence was quietly re-pinned onto the very star it was about.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered” Clara Bow, on the death of Marilyn Monroe, c. 1962

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Marilyn Monroe. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Clara Bow — Silent-film star & Hollywood's original "It Girl". Theme: "A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The real source

Spoken by
Clara Bow (1905–1965)
About
Marilyn Monroe, on her death
Occasion
Remark, c. August 1962
Documented in
Clara Bow biography & reference entries

A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt, and bewildered.

Clara Bow’s words on the death of Marilyn Monroe, with whom she strongly identified. A fuller circulating variant reads “Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is very tired, hurt and bewildered.”

Encyclopedia.com: Clara Bow (1905–1965)

How we traced it

  • Wikiquote lists the line in its Marilyn Monroe “Misattributed” section and notes it “was actually said by Clara Bow.”
  • The reference entry Encyclopedia.com’s Clara Bow biography carries the exact wording: “Bow herself identified with Marilyn Monroe, saying of her death, ‘A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt, and bewildered.’”
  • Monroe’s genuine sex-symbol line came from her 1962 Life interview with Richard Meryman — a different sentence, as Quote Investigator documents.

This is a spoken remark by Clara Bow from around August 1962; it survives through later biographies and reference entries rather than a single pinned first-publication, so no clean copyright date can be asserted. It is plainly a 20th-century utterance, not a pre-1931 work, so it is not public domain; the exact first print appearance is undetermined.

Fact-check

How it landed on Marilyn Monroe

This is a boomerang quote: a line said about Marilyn Monroe by an earlier sex symbol eventually got reassigned to Monroe herself — a natural mix-up, since both the subject and the speaker were famous for the very burden the sentence describes.

Marilyn Monroe Misattributed

Databases like BrainyQuote and Quotefancy print it under Monroe’s name with no source, and Wikiquote files it as misattributed.

Clara Bow Verified speaker

Bow, who identified strongly with Monroe, said it of Monroe’s death; the exact wording appears in Encyclopedia.com’s Bow entry.

The words are Clara Bow’s, spoken about Marilyn Monroe in 1962 — not Monroe’s own; Monroe’s real sex-symbol line was the separate “a sex symbol becomes a thing” from her final Life interview.

Context

Why the mix-up makes sense

Clara Bow and Marilyn Monroe were the same archetype a generation apart — the era-defining screen sex symbol whose private self was crushed by the public one. Bow burned out under exactly the scrutiny she describes, retreating from Hollywood while still young.

So when Bow reacted to Monroe’s 1962 death with this sentence, she was speaking as someone who had carried the identical load. Detached from that context and passed around online, the empathy of one sex symbol for another was easily misread as Monroe describing herself.

A line said in sympathy for Monroe became a line spoken as Monroe.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Success Resilience

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Marilyn Monroe (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote flags the line as misattributed and names Clara Bow as the real speaker.
Clara Bow (1905–1965)encyclopedia.com

Reference biography carrying the exact quote in its Monroe-death context.
Quote Origin: A Sex Symbol Becomes a Thingquoteinvestigator.com

Documents Monroe’s actual 1962 Life-interview sex-symbol remark (a different line).
Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild (David Stenn)archive.org

The standard 1988 Bow biography; primary chronicle of her life and late reclusive years.
Clara Bowen.wikipedia.org

Background on Bow as the 1920s “It Girl” and original screen sex symbol.

The real voice behind the line

Clara Bow

Clara Bow

1905–1965 · Silent-film star & Hollywood's original "It Girl"

Clara Bow was the breakout sex symbol of the 1920s, whose turn as a magnetic shopgirl in the 1927 film It made her “The It Girl” and one of the biggest stars of the silent era. Chewed up by fame, scandal and studio pressure, she retired young and lived reclusively for decades. When Marilyn Monroe — a later star endlessly compared to her — died in 1962, Bow spoke about the private cost of being a public sex symbol, having carried that weight herself.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

Clara Bow, remark on the death of Marilyn Monroe, c. August 1962, as recorded in “Bow, Clara (1905–1965),” Encyclopedia.com; cf. David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild (New York: Doubleday, 1988).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-sex-symbol-is-a-heavy-load-to-carry-when-one-is-tired

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