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38. Madonna

Chosen by:
Associate Professor Anne Marsh,
Department of Theory of Art and Design, Faculty of Art and Design

Madonna, 1958-

Madonna was the archetypal  'bad girl' of popular culture  in the 1980s.  Her songs and explicit video performances were condemned by church and state, and by an older school of feminists. Her song Material Girl was criticized for encouraging rampant capitalist tendencies. Like a Virgin was controversial because it questioned virginity as a pre-requisite for marriage.  Papa Don't Preach and Open Your Heart pushed the limits of sexually acceptable behaviour even further.  Madonna's Like a Prayer ad for Pepsi-Cola was censored, after she'd been paid $5 million. The two minute Pepsi commercial was shown on prime time television in forty countries to an audience of 250 million on March 2, 1989. Hours later the Like a Prayer single and video were released worldwide. The American Family Association called it blatantly offensive and called for a twelve month ban on all Pepsi products.  In Rome, Catholic groups threatened to file charges of blasphemy against Madonna's record company and the TV network. Catholic leaders across the globe joined the chorus of condemnation.5

However, a younger generation of feminist scholars and cultural theorists embraced Madonna. Her work was seriously analysed as a popular cultural expression of a powerful feminine sexuality.

Sado-masochism had become a style in the late 1980s and Madonna would have been aware of this. She used the SM aesthetic in the SEX book and employed Steven Meisel – who had a reputation as a sleaze photographer specialising in eroticism – to produce grainy porn-like images. The images show Madonna acting out various sexual fantasies but it is very clear that these are performative photographs.

There was so much hype surrounding the book that it sold out within minutes of its launch. We were lucky to have ordered an advance copy for the Rare Books Collection. The book was part of the promotion for Madonna’s CD Erotica; the CD accompanying the book included the title-track.

5 See Cathy Schwichtenberg (ed.), The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory, St Leonards NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993, esp. pp. 23 and 151.

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