Madonna As a Feminist

Madonna As a Feminist

            Through her upcoming in the 1980s, Madonna has managed to deconstruct the female identity and recreate it for her own. Se has encouraged and inspired other girls to take control away from a predominantly male power through her music and controversial performances and music videos. Madonna’s character has been labeled everything from risqué to ground breaking for her assertion of female sexual empowerment. Her music relates sex to being good for women, something that can make them feel bold and powerful rather than be something that could belittle or enforce women to being submissive. Coming from an Italian catholic background, Madonna arose in a conservative time and her forte to not let heavy criticism of her explicitness effect how she presented herself became a celebrated quality in her role as a feminist icon.

            Madonna’s feminist messages first started showing through her song “Like a Virgin” where she sings of sex rather blatantly for the time, and as much as many people would not want it to, it was easily related among other teen girls. Next “Papa Don’t Preach” came out speaking of issues of teen pregnancy, which were considered very taboo to even speak about during the time. Better yet, Madonna sings about the decision of a teenager to keep her baby, which was almost unthinkable for the times. Madonna’s high point on pushing the boundaries of sexuality was during a “Blond Ambition” where she strutted around in big suits with cone bras that ultimately became the visual for her iconic image. Finally after releasing a soft-core pornography booklet entitled sex and releasing a song called “Human Nature” featuring BDSM themes within her music video, the critics aimed to shatter her image. But why would Madonna be persecuted for expressing her sexuality openly, especially in a time where sexual images of women started to prevail in music videos and scenes? It seems as though the media tried hard to punish Madonna just as any other female who expressed her sexual freedom. Madonna was sexual and seductive but never in a discreet manner, and yet she always remained as the subject within her performances and music videos. She never became a sexual object because she was sexual for herself and her self-expression only.  Especially as she has aged Madonna is now facing the criticisms of women in general that she fought to diminish at the start of her career.  Past the age of thirty society’s ageism against women started to show through blatantly, and suddenly Madonna became just another “sex kitten” living past her prime and only openly declaring her sexuality for pop culture popularity. Madonna has merely been acting as herself as per usual. Suddenly her open sensuality has lessened to nothing but a performance for show – lessening her message as well as the possibility of older women being sexually active. While I do believe that Madonna has made great strides in creating a normalcy of female sexuality, I do believe that there is still a long way to go for females who do not fit within a young adult age group. Many can argue that Madonna merely followed and allowed further a path of female objectification within the music scene, but I believe that Madonna opened doors for those who were repressed in sexual freedom and allowed women to take a claim in their own sensuality all the while still being able to be powerful individuals that did not have to be defined by only their sexuality.