CORE: MADonna

Walking by a magazine stand literally five minutes, I could not help but spot this month's issue of Vanity Fair, and guess who was on the cover.  None other than Madonna .  Coincidence? I think not.  Genius of Professor McPherson? I think so.  Her name and picture has been everywhere lately, mostly in promotion of her newest album.  I couldn't help but find the irony in opening up the reading for this week and how on pg 158 it states that in an interview Madonna said how jealous she was of Black Culture and how she wanted to be black as a child.  The reason behind my smirk after reading this is her battle in popularity against Mariah Carey's "comeback", in which Madonna is clearly winning, and arguably so, but the motif and theme of this new album and ad campaign is boxing, implying that she is still kicking and punching despite her age of 50.  The cover of Vanity Fair this month confirmed all of this for me, as it added more life to the campaign by having her in boxing boots but this time holding planet earth on her back.  The cover told us that Madonna is stronger than ever, and that both her and VF want to be more GREEN.  The pg number where you can read the cover story of her was even cleverly written on a fig leaf.  Once you turn to the article, its only a page long and its more about the fact that Madonna has successfully mad it to the cover of VF 10 times, and for this one how they chose a studio in West Hollywood, and how when she was done with the shoot she signed the globe...YIPPY!.  The next few pages are conveniently placed ads for Hybrids.  Once again, returning to the words made famous by Alanis Morsette, "Isn't it Ironic?" that her article was only 1 page and most of the magazine is nothing but advertisements for Green related things, thus using MORE paper and MORE ink to make this magazine, when obviously something like the internet is way more environmentally conscious.  

The final thing that made me giggle on the cover of this issue is the astric next to the subtitle: UNBOWED, UNCOWED, STILL TAKING ON THE WORLD *, if you follow the * it says "and she's still 50".  Thank you Vanity Fair for making this clearly not so clear.

The hubris effect of Vanity Fair adds to our ongoing discussion of the contradiction of stardom and to end this let me point out how appro-po the title of the publication starts with the word Vanity, this one just happens to be the "right" (fair) amount.