Okay, let me take a stab at this:
Marilyn Manson tells us that the name “Marilyn Manson” was inspired by the paradoxical obsession society has over two polar opposites: glamour and psychopathy–glamour being represented by Marilyn Monroe and psychopathy being represented by Charles Manson.
Monroe was definitely an icon of glamour, the most famous sex symbol of the twentieth century according to most sources. And yet the interview with her betrays a sadness that wasn’t usually seen, a despair masked by a superficial smile.
Tim Skold, even after breaking from Marilyn Manson, seems to continue the tradition, at least in his song Better the Devil. His style of darkness has always seemed to be about “death” and “nothingness” and “nihilism”. He sings:
“I see the cut, but I still can’t feel the fucking pain.” ← numbness
“Under my boot, every snowflake looks the same.” ← Hatred of qualities and diversity.
And then there’s this:
“Between these walls there’s a tiny chance I could refrain
Below black stars an even smaller chance I will complain.”
^ This part in particular makes me think of the life of Marilyn Monroe. As sad as Monroe was, she doesn’t once complain. In the interview, she says she tries to find happiness by fulfilling her roll, her Barbie Doll roll, trying to find happiness by wearing an almost plastic-like smile, as if she might hold it for a bit longer, strain her facial muscles a bit harder, and finally happiness will appear. The idea, as I interpret it, is that most of us are the walking dead, empty shells in which there was once a living spirit. Sooner or later, society crushes the spirit, like snowflakes under a boot, and we lose the will to even complain about the rolls we’re forced into, to refrain from accepting them. Any will to resist, to complain, was obviously wiped out of Monroe long before the interview. In the interview, it is obvious that she not only accepts the roll of Barbie Doll sex symbol, but actually believes it will bring her happiness. She believes society when it tells her: you will find happiness in this roll. Her individuality has been snuffed out and replaced by the Borg like higher intelligence which is the voice of society itself tell us where our happiness lies.
It wasn’t until the sixties, only a few years after Monroe’s (probable) suicide, during second wave feminism, that women started to complain–and loudly–a decade that shattered the social glass like nothing before, that woke us up spiritually like no other era in history.
I wonder if this is what Skold was getting at with this song. If so, one might wonder whether Skold, and perhaps Manson himself, are really closet case feminists.