Madonna's Star

I'm not signed up for a core post this week, but after reading other people's blog posts, I wanted to comment on last week's screening as well. I was surprisingly entertained by Truth or Dare, especially considering the fact that I knew little about Madonna. While her "motherly" tendencies and attitude toward others were oftentimes contradicting and harsh, her entertainment quality was there...this is probably why she is even a star. Even if a person is racist or disrespectful, if they entertain you, people will remain interested. Because Madonna is someone who makes it a point to do what she wants without a care in the world, she has a star quality that is attractive and controversial. Madonna's ability to maintain star status and to continue to successfully alter her image deserves some credit. Like someone else commented, it seems like when a contemporary singer does a song with Madonna, it becomes a big deal, almost like it's the highest they can go. When I heard that Justin Timberlake and Madonna had a song together, I was almost impressed for some reason. While I'm not praising Madonna for who she is or what she stands for, I do think that, if nothing else, her talent lies in being able to continue to stay in the spotlight for so many years and generate a sense of respect through generations.

Response to Veronica's Madonna post

I too had never seen "Truth or Dare" and was suprised at the image that was constructed of Madonna. I laughed when she called herself a mother and also when she called her concert a form of artistic expression. The Madonna in this film is much different than the Modanna today, but she purposely recreates her image every five years or so. Madonna today wants to be as a humanitary and sexy for her age, but remember back in the nineties when she was heavenly influenced by Marylin Monroe or Eastern culture, or when she was a cowgirl? With so many morphes (too many to count), how could any of us really know who Madonna is?

Take a look at the many versions of Madonna. Funny thing is that she takes herself so seriously in all of her different roles.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kX5VLMQeBuk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YMt53HYkfY8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3tYLo9FkqNc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjOLh2s-o3M

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fYl5M1APEsc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=R55xDxaXw5E

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oWSe4t9v62I

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2ccm0wvWugU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j5R9sNiNwc4

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…

Celebrity Sightings outside of Los Angeles

I was surprised when, on a recent trip to New York City, I came across more celebrities in one afternoon than I do in several days in Los Angeles.  Much to my excitement, I was seated across from Ryan Gosling at a midtown bar.  Earlier that day, I had gone for a walk in Central Park and came across Kyra Sedgewick. There seemed to be a very different "vibe" in these sightings than the ones I've had in Los Angeles.  Both celebrities made eye contact and smiled pleasantly. There were no baseball caps, dark glasses, or entourage.  It was rather refreshing!

Reading Response

Madonna: The Spectacle!

From the Cvetkovich article, I found it interesting to think about the idea of drag and then also the idea of impersonation, from Elvis. I could not stop thinking about the 1999 Video Music Awards. Check out the YouTube clip

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9kIqualuElw

The examination of Madonna's status as a drag queen icon caught my attention in particular. I found the argument presented was well thought and on target, but for me, I see the use of Madonna as a drag icon and the ways in which she blends femininity, masculinity and sexuality coming from the fact that she does not present herself as sexual from the stand point of the gaze. She is neither the looker or the one being looked at when she is performing or in the film. Her actions are more a performace for the performing rather than performing to fit a mold. She does things to be outrageous and different rather than to be sexy. The ways she dresses and acts is a mix of everything. Wearing a bustier and grabbing her crotch is femininity and masculinity in one person at one time. This mixing allows for others to find a new platform for expression, not necessarily an escape. It is a way to perform and be a spectacle of the outrageous and crazy.

Madonna is a vehicle for performance for whomever embodies her. The ways Elvis is impersonated is more about being him and channeling his persona, but for Madonna, she is an icon for outlandish behavior and freedom of expression. When drag queens become Madonna, they have a person that fits their desire to blur gender roles and social conventions.

Diego

Core Response #3

I was frustrated while reading Cvetkovich's article this week.  It may be due to exhaustion, but I resented the fact that Madonna can't just be the Madonna I danced to while it played on my sister's hot pink tape deck (an academic sin, I know).  I suppose the point that struck me the most in Cvetkovich's article was the line that stated "Paris is Burning suggests that pleasure, fantasy, and sexuality are not separate from the supposedly more urgent concerns of race and class." Immediately the series premiere of Showtime's "Tracy Ullman's State of the Union" came to mind.  After having watched the show in TV Symposium, I found myself disturbed and depressed by the frighteningly accurate (though exaggerated) depiction of America she presents to her audience.  Ullman's America is full of absurd, wealthy characters and struggling, poor characters.  She juxtaposes the high-powered New York executive having passionate, adulterous sex on a conference table with her boss with a scene of a very low-income immigrant woman coming home after working three shifts only to tell her husband to wake up and begin his day of work while she climbs into an empty bed.  In Ullman's America only the rich have time for sex.  All of her "higher class" characters are depicted getting Botox injections or doing pilates, whereas her "lower class" characters are seen as overweight, wrinkled chain-smokers.  In Ullman's America only the rich have time for pleasure.  Though one would think that sex and physical pleasure would not be exclusive to those with material wealth ("can't buy me love"), in contemporary American society, they are.  Gossip magazines fly off the stands and provide viewers with images of beautiful celebrities "enjoying" an extravagant lifestyle that few in this country could afford.  We read about their scandalous sex lives, their glamorous vacations, and their latest beauty treatments.  No one depicted in those magazines (or on E! television or Perezhilton.com) is struggling economically in the way that millions of Americans are today.  Obsessing over and discussing the lives of celebrities give Americans who could never afford those lifestyles a time to fantasize or a way to buy the latest ABS knock-off Oscar dress or offers for all-expense paid, "VIP" trips to Las Vegas.  Today, celebrities define beauty (which is closely tied to sexuality) as another highly-priced commodity.  This strips those without the means to Botox their faces, hire personal trainers, or purchase spa packages of their sexuality.  The American stereotype of prom night comes to mind.  In its tradition, it is a night where many young women try to look like movie stars and (in many cases) hope for sexual gratification.

Her Madgesty...CORE 5

Well I must say that out of the films screened so far in this class, this week's screening of Truth or Dare has really been one that has stuck with me after class.  I found the film to be so self-absorbed, outrageous, and frivolous, yet enthralling, engaging, and entertaining nonetheless.

Before watching the film, I knew nothing about Madonna other than the fact that she has undergone a number of transformations, explaining the longevity of her career.  I remember seeing defining moments of her career such as the controversial act in her show in which she is "crucified", the Britney-kiss moment, and her roles in A League of Their Own and Evita, yet I have not intentionally sought information about "her Madgesty".  After seeing the film this week, I cannot say that I know much more about Madonna than I did going into the screening, but I can say that I have walked out with a much greater appreciation for her self-proclaimed "artistic creativity".

After reading Bell's article, I now see a number of racial issues that Madonna represents, yet I must say that while watching the film, the thing that stuck out most was the power she possesses, which Bell only begins to discuss towards the end of the article.  I'm uncertain as to whether or not her crotch rubbing represents black masculinity as much as it represents liberation, female liberation to be specific.  I see most of her moves as an expression of power as even the police force in Texas cannot keep her from censoring herself.  I see her desire of "motherhood" towards her crew as another outcome of her desire for power.  I see this desire for power as the reason she can be lent to other races because in pursuit of this power, one must first be powerless.  As a woman, she must overcome the masculine dominated hegemony, yet by lending herself to cultures of African American women she constructs even more of a challenge.

One thing I do want to discuss is the alignment other stars make with Madonna.  For a while, when Britney was on top of the game, she shared a moment with Madonna on an MTV stage that will not soon be forgotten.  They then released a single together, and it is even reported that Britney asked Madonna to be the Godmother of her first child, in which Madonna turned down (too bad Brit didn't get to see this film in which Madonna said no to her friend in the same predicament).  Now, with Justin Timberlake on top of the game, Madonna has released a single with him, and their public outings has been the topic of blogs and magazines for weeks.  It seems as if once you reach a certain level of stardom, it only makes sense to pair up with Madonna.  Yet, it seems that once that is complete, there may be no other direction to go.  While Madonna is able to constantly recycle her image, Britney fell from grace.  It will be interesting to see where Justin goes after this collaboration.

We've discussed star transformation a number of times throughout the semester, and while I'm uncertain of each of Madonna's representations as I don't follow her religiously, I do know that just recently, with the release of her latest album, the Madonna frenzy has escalated.  She is currently appearing on a number of magazine covers, and her latest single with Justin Timberlake is already at the top of the charts.  The insane amount of coverage this woman receives just proves the appeal remains!