Star by Performers : Madonna

"In all my work, my thing has always been not to be ashamed of who you are, your body, your physically, your desires, your sexual fantasies. The reason there is bigotry, sexism, racism, and homophobia is fear. People are afraid of their own feelings, afraid of the unknown and I am saying: Don’t be afraid." –Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone

Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6487508/madonna-to-launch-rebel-heart-world-tour-in-august

Madonna is one of the most commercially successful artists in the history of popular music. She was highly photo and videogenic and effective in challenging and creating her own image. Madonna was seen as a major icon of the 1980's because she was different to anyone in the era. She broke down fashion barriers which ideas and made her unusual style mainstream, her fashion sense inspired many of her fans and followers as she always kept her style up to date and thrived on impressing and shocking her audiences. She is not afraid of how others perceived her look and willing to venture to be any kind of character to bring the message she wants to bring. She was head strong and acted with confidence about her own style. At a time when ‘80s fashions were promoting flat-chested, stick-thin women as ideals of beauty, the more curvaceous Madonna made average girls feel that it was fine to be in the shape they were. A new word called 'Madonna wannabe' was introduced to describe the thousands of girls who tried to emulate Madonna's style. Macy's, a mid-range chain of department stores of American allotted an entire floor area for the sale of clothes styled according to Madonna's fashion.

Macy's Material Girl Catogory
Retrieved form www.macys.com

Star as Performer

Madonna the star as a performer, was able to reinvent herself and her fashion styles to suit the decades made her revolutionary as a music artist. She’s an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman. She has been honored with 20 MTV Video Music Awards and Billboard named Madonna as the top touring female artist of all time. Every of her music video would always have a different style and image appealing. It was as if she was portraying different characters and roles and expressing the meanings and feelings behind the roles. Madonna reinvented her persona through her videos. In her video Like a virgin, she played a reincarnated Marylin Monroe. In her video Like a prayer she played a rebellious Catholic. In the video Justify my love, she provoked with the combination of Catholicism and a sexually provocative dominatrix. Often lauded as the queen of creativity and the most influential female role in pop music, Madonna was famous for teasing her audience with hints and rumours of scandalous affairs. Despite the issues and critics, she remains the last and best bastion of the ‘80s and ‘90s musics.

Pop Culture Icon of Postmodernity

Madonna's rebelliousness was obvious since the beginning of the career. Being raised in a strict Catholic family, the religious values has become the biggest reason for her to rebel against. And she once said the biggest reason she was able to express herself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother who taught manners and setting up framework for how she should behave. She began to use her artistic ability to turn controversy to publicity and when things get bad, she even use the bad publicity to her advantage to keep her status as an pop culture icon. Her intentionally provocation with a mix of sexual and religious rebellious not just simply gain huge attention all over the world, but busted the boundaries, modernised the pop culture for later young pop stars. She created the freedom for future stars to perform the way they do. The shocked and extreme ways of performing Madonna did had open a path for future female stardom. 

As a Gay Icon

Madonna appears to be one of the 50 most popular gay icon and has huge popularity of gay fans in Pink News, the largest Europe gay news service. Madonna embraces homosexuality equal rights. In 2010, she released a statement that she believes and supports in equal rights for all people, no matter what their gender, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation, and call upon the progressive men and women around the world to support in response to the decision to jail two men in Malawi for their celebration of union with a ceremony. At the same year, she made her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and talked about how she was introduced and closed to the gay community by her dance instructor during her teenage life. 

She emphasized about how her acceptance to gay friends and empathy on how they got bullied.

Self as Own Work of Art

Madonna became revolutionary as her power derives from her success at manipulating her own image. She continuously experimenting new musical ideas and images in her musical career and portray herself in every character of film she involved. Most of her musics were wrote and produced by herself. The lyrics written by her was often autobiographical and dealing with various theme from love and relationships to self-respect and female empowerment and taboo of sexuality. Moreover, in the manner which Madonna uses her body to wear fashion, perform sexual acts and dance displayed ideas of religion and sex. Issues that were raised with her sexually explicit lyrics such as ‘Like a prayer’ had contributed Madonna in losing her Pepsi contract. In the meantime, Madonna had the power that forced society to question and form views on her sexually explicit song lyrics and music videos.

Gender Equality & Freedom of Expression

Madonna has acted as a role model in empowering female through her works. She achieved an enormous amount of success also embodies the quintessential negative associations of women. Almost in all of the movie character she acted, she shows the idea of how female works to free the gender role. In Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelmen, 1985), Madonna played the title role, Susan, an explosive street girl as a second fiddle to the main cast, housewife Rosanna in a feminine touch. It is a story of a desperate, bored housewife having a free punk runaway that was directed, produced and scripted all by woman. Madonna portrayed herself in almost every film that she involved. She carefully choose and rejects character which are in contradict with her own image. In 1990, before she took the chracter, Mae in a feminism film, A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), she rejected a victimised female character which is sexually abducted by the male main character in Boxing Helena (Jennifer Chambers Lynch, 1993). The reject was happened after her release of “Justify My Love” (1990) single themed about female free expression of sexuality which we will discuss more about later on.

Besides, Madonna has also themed the meaning of female empowerment in her own songs. In “Express Yourself” (1989), one of the songs from her forth album, “Like A Prayer” (1989), the lyrics by Madonna urge woman not to afraid to express how they feel and what they want to be freely without fear. The lyrics and visual itself applauded freedom of expression of gender equally. Madonna has played a significant impact in changing America’s view on the female gender. Although there is still widely oppressed, there is far more room for woman to empower themselves whether it be through music or sexuality. As the leader of woman empowerment has take the lead in the 80’s showed individualism and showed what woman power that women have been searching for. Madonna help changed the attitude of women through her music. Madonna confronts the hegemonic ideology of women and turns it on its head.  It is no wonder then that the dominant groups view her as a threat to the status quo.