Reading Response 4: Madonna

I hadn’t had much experience with Madonna before watching this film. Sure, I have some of her biggest hits on my ipod, but I’ve never been particularly interested in her. Not disinterested, she just wasn’t someone really on my radar. Watching Truth or Dare in class, however, I realized that I really detest her, as a person (I still like most of her music). I found her controlling, racist, sexist, homophobic, emotionally stunted, self-obsessed, and dismissive. Reading Bell Hooks’ article, I realized I wasn’t alone. They way that she is presented in the film is almost appalling to me. From her “mothering” of the “emotional cripples” she chooses to surround herself with, to her forcing them all to get into bed with her, to her treatment of her brother, to her “fascist” tendencies, I thought she was presented in a rather negative light. It’s interesting, however, because she’s clearly controlling what the audience learns about her. In a documentary like Truth or Dare, the audience is supposedly getting a “behind the scenes” look at a famous performer, an all-access pass to see a star up close that millions would pay huge sums of money just to stand in the same room with. However, the content of the film is SO obviously hand picked to create a certain desired image of Madonna that it is difficult to take seriously. I was not at all surprised to see her name given Executive Producer credit in the closing titles.
The Hooks article was interesting, I thought, in how it classified Madonna and her power as that of a white heterosexual male. It was striking to me how true that was. She has this extreme power over all of her back up dancers, who are either gay, minorities, or women, and yet she is submissive to the white boyfriend (Warren Beatty). Her treatment of the friend from high school I think is especially demonstrative of this mentality. She was so dismissive and fake toward this woman (who, granted, was a little bit crazy) that it made me sick. For someone touted as a strong female performer, she certainly is not a good feminist role model, in this film at least.
I feel like this side of her is not apparent in her current day persona. I know her best for her adoption of African children, and recently for her comeback CD and song with JT and Timbaland. And for putting her daughter on a diet at the age of 8, or something equally ridiculous. But especially as a gay icon, which is why it was so confusing for me to see her treating the gay men in her group as objects, toys for her to play with. Madonna has had such a large role in creating her own image, which makes me wonder if she has consciously changed her image in recent years, or if she would still support her actions in Truth or Dare. I’ll be interested in seeing how her most recent CD is received, and possibly watching her music videos to see if she still uses similar rhetorical techniques in her media forms. I really hope she’s matured and moved on…