Madge-ical Moments  | COMMENTARY | Advocate.com

||  COMMENTARY  ||
Read CommentsPost a CommentTag this page
 
Madge-ical Moments
As Madonna prepares to release her new CD, Hard Candy, four Advocate staffers share how they became enthralled with the icon and what she's meant to them ever since.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted April 4, 2008
Madge-ical Moments

By Neal Broverman

When Madonna barked at me to “Get up on the dance floor!” I was 12 and lived in a town four years away from having a juice bar. But I heeded her orders like any good disciple and turned my kitchen into Danceteria, voguing in Hanes socks and studying my reflection in the door of my mother’s range.

Before the Vogue era I knew of Madonna but hadn’t paid much attention. Like a child, I judged her from other people’s perceptions, which consisted of “She’s a slut!” “She touches herself!” “She’s a slut!” By 12, I was ready to stomach her intoxicating mix of glamour, allure, and self-confidence. She had boyfriends, money, beauty, smarts; she went to nightclubs, lived in Hollywood and New York. She was the girl everyone talked about. I wanted it all and she said I could have it.

Madonna CD, Vogue

As I matured, my love for her didn’t wane but rather spiked at various times; I found myself especially drawn to her when coming upon her darker songs open to interpretation. Ray of Light’s “Skin” was all sex and drugs, two subjects I found eminently fascinating in the late ‘90s. A few years later, the romantic desperation of Music’s “Don’t Tell Me” played to my first failed love affair. I was intrigued -- and mystified -- by Madonna’s anticonsumerism anthem, “Nobody Knows Me,” on American Life.

Some can’t reconcile Madonna’s wildly varying characteristics -- “How can she write a sex book and a children’s book?” “How can she be on TV but not watch TV?” “How can she be nearly 50 and still like sex?” Yet her contradictions only make my devotion grow deeper (and deeper). She’s conflicted and complex, ever morphing and growing, right often but wrong plenty. She’s a Leo like me.

Her habit of shedding skins has never seemed manipulative but rather the natural growth process of an interesting person. I’ve been a hippie, a raver, a rebel. And even if I don’t wear Birkenstocks anymore, that time is still part of me, as I’m sure all her “personas” remain part of her.

While she’s forever changing up her style and tastes, through it all she’s always been around, reassuring in her constancy. I mean, I still dance to her music in my kitchen, only now I’m wearing better socks.

Broverman is The Advocate’s associate editor.

 

###

 

By Michelle Garcia

Being the liberal, freethinking, power-to-the-people kind of folks my mom and dad are, the most logical course of action concerning my development was to put their oldest daughter in Catholic school. For the first five years of my academic career, I was taught mostly by disgruntled old ladies who were able to hit you and make you feel guilty for just about anything.

Each year at the Immaculate Conception School, each teacher stood before his or her class and gave detailed examples of sins not to commit: "You may not use the words 'shit,' 'damn,' or 'ass,'" Sister Francis told our first-grade class. I imagined Bishop Daily of the archdiocese of Brooklyn and Queens distributed an official decree, sanctioned by Pope John Paul II himself, to each teaching nun to allow one day per year that she may use swear words, strictly for instructional purposes.

"You also must stay away from a musical artist named Madonna, the name stolen from the Holy Virgin Mary," she said, making a sign of the cross. "She is dirty and obsessed with material that is not appropriate for young children."

At age 5, I was only vaguely familiar with the Material Girl, but I felt I had to know more in order to form my own opinions about her. And besides, I could have been watching a blood-filled soft-core porn movie, and my grandma, who watched us after school, would not have lifted her eyes from her latest Tom Clancy novel.

Madonna CD, American Dreams

So that afternoon, I left the safe waters of PBS and Nickelodeon to turn on MTV back when it played music videos during the day. "Vogue" eventually came on. Not only did I wonder how the video was supposed to be harmful or provocative, but I found her captivating and powerful. Granted, I wasn’t watching “Human Nature” or “Like a Prayer,” but I wouldn’t have known any different.

It seems that through my childhood and into adolescence, adults shunned Madonna. I've been told to stay away from her more times than I can count: Don't listen to her music, don't read her book, don't wear dominatrix outfits, and so on.

But as I watched her vogue for the first time, sing passionately in front of a burning cross, and wear a cone-shaped bra, I saw Madonna for who she is, beyond the labels of sex and rebellion: an artist who pushes boundaries and defies the status quo. We need more people like her in the world, at minimum to keep things less boring, but more important, to keep us moving forward in thought and artistic expression.

Garcia is The Advocate’s editorial assistant.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives
  • Florida's Marriage Amendment Battle Sure to Be a Squeaker
    Polls show Florida's gay marriage ban is just shy of the 60% support needed to pass, but the state's complicated demographics make the outcome of the vote anyone's guess. One thing is certain: Amendment 2's sweeping nature would affect far more people than the gays and lesbians it's targeting.
  • Patrick Guerriero Lays Out No on 8 "Path to Victory"
    The No on 8 campaign’s new director, Patrick Guerriero, laid out a “path to victory” during a weekly phone call with LGBT reporters, calling on every one of the roughly one million LGBT Californians to donate money to defeat Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
  • GLSEN Gets a New Boss
    You could say GLSEN is getting a new principal. On Wednesday the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network announced that Eliza Byard will become its new executive director, replacing founder and longtime executive director Kevin Jennings. Byard, who takes the reins on November 1, spoke to The Advocate about the task ahead for LGBT students and all of us who want to see them thrive.
  • GLBT History Month: 31 Days, 31 Heroes
    October is GLBT History Month, a national celebration of queer culture through the ages. To remind people of our achievements, the Equality Forum has honored a hero for every day of the month. Who made the list?
  • The Advocate's Big Four Report: Florida
    The Advocate continues its coverage of four swing states this week with Florida, which went red in 2004 and infamously decided the 2000 election for George W. Bush. Today’s story is the first of four pieces focusing on the Sunshine State's political dynamics, LGBT concerns, and how it all will play out on Election Day.
  • Will a Wealthy Social Conservative Have His Way With California Voters Again?
    Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. has put $900,000 of his own money into passing California's gay marriage ban, but it's not the first time the flush ascetic has injected his religious views into politics. From stemming affirmative action to stoking unrest within the Episcopal Church, Ahmanson has been one of the most influential political donors in the country.
  • Steven Weber Plays the Political Card
    Actor Steven Weber one-ups even Larry Craig and J. Edgar Hoover (at least the version depicted in Oliver Stone’s JFK) as a sinister-and-sleazy-beneath-the-surface politician in writer-director Luke Eberl’s drama Choose Connor.
  • Connecticut Marriage Ruling Shifts Focus to California, Prop. 8
    While LGBT citizens and supporters were rejoicing at the Connecticut supreme court’s Friday decision to legalize same-sex marriage, others were already weighing what effect the ruling might have on this year’s marriage amendment battles in California, Arizona, and Florida as well as the presidential election.
  • Messing Around Again
    Forget Grace Adler (for a minute). Suddenly, Debra Messing wants to become everybody’s favorite desperate ex-housewife with her big return to the small screen in The Starter Wife.
  • On Gay Marriage: A Letter From a GOP Mom Re: Sarah Palin
    A registered Republican from the swing state of Ohio has a few questions for Sarah Palin and John McCain on the heels of Palin's vice-presidential debate. Specifically, Kim Peters wants to know: Just how "tolerant" would a McCain White House be of Peters's lesbian daughter?
  • Kristofer Eisenla Does the DNC
    Long before Kristofer Eisenla became deputy chief of staff and communications director for U.S. representative Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), he campaigned for Clinton marching around the living room of his staunchly Republican grandparents' home with a sign he'd crafted himself. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine 16 years later he'd be so actively involved in the planning of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
  • Russian Officials Shut Down Country's First LGBT Film Fest
    Side by Side was supposed to be Russia's first LGBT film festival, but on October 2, just hours before the scheduled premiere, organizers were met by officials blocking the entrance to the venue, claiming fire code violations—an excuse they say Russian authorities have used since the early '90s as a pretext for shutting down events as they see fit.
  • Memories of Coming Out: Day 3
    On October 11 millions of openly gay Americans will reflect on the day they took those brave first steps out of the closet, providing support and encouragement to others who have yet to find their voice. On the third day of our coming-out series, speaker and lecturer Donna Rose, filmmaker and GroundSpark executive director Debra Chasnoff, and entertainment publicist Len Evans share their coming-out stories.
  • Hilary Duff Wants You to Stop Saying 'That's So Gay'
    “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Since the 1940s the Ad Council has been impacting the culture with slogans like these. Now the venerable nonprofit organization is out to educate teens that antigay slang doesn’t cut it anymore -- and to kick-start the effort, it's recruited Hilary Duff.
  • Jared Polis: Post-Gay Candidate?
    This is the third article in The Advocate's continuing coverage of four battleground states: Colorado, Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Jared Polis is set to make history by becoming the first openly gay non-incumbent male elected to the U.S. Congress, but the milestone has failed to send shock waves through his Colorado district. Some think that could represent the greatest progress of all.
  • Memories of Coming Out: Day 2
    On October 11 millions of openly gay Americans will reflect on the day they took those brave first steps out of the closet, providing support and encouragement to others who have yet to find their voice. On the second day of our coming-out series, Brooke Knows Best star Glenn Douglas Packard (pictured), SAGE executive director Michael Adams, and Family Equality Council executive director Jennifer Chrisler share their coming-out stories.
  • Pat Steadman Fights to Turn Colorado Blue
    Since Colorado’s Amendment 2 changed the state constitution to prohibit new laws to protect lesbians and gays from discrimination in 1992, LGBT activist Pat Steadman has been at the forefront of Colorado's equal rights battle. Now, for the first time since that year, Colorado looks like it could well swing Democrat in November's election, thanks in large part to the work of Steadman and Equal Rights Colorado.