loren@dweasel.llnl.GOV (Loren Petrich) (01/07/91)
The question was raised about sexual exploitation in music videos and what the music-video station MTV shows a lot. There was an interesting perspective on this question provided in the course of a controversy not too long ago. The name of Madonna Louise Ciccone, a woman who usually uses only her first name, should be familiar to all of you people by now. She is a dancer/singer/songwriter/actress who has generated controversy after controversy after controversy, often from her unabashed expressions of sexuality. She has earned the enmity of professional prudes like the Rev. Donald Wildmon, who claimed that her making out with a saint in "Like a Prayer" was blasphemy, and of feminists for alleged sexual exploitation, acting like a greedy gold digger in her "Material Girl" video, and for supposedly glorifying teenage pregnancy in her song "Papa Don't Preach." Most recently, her video for her song "Justify My Love" was banned from MTV, whose executives accused it of being too raunchy for their tastes. In an early statement, she asked why people were willing to watch someone get blown to bits for no reason at all, but were reluctant to watch two men snuggling or two "girls" kissing. According to her, the video represented one person's fantasies, evidently hers. She appeared on Nightline late last year, and stated her case in an interview with Forrest Sawyer. I obtained a transcript of that interview, and here is how it went. After an introductory blurb, the station showed the video itself, which was a weird make-out session shot in black-and-white and featuring Madonna herself, her current boyfriend Tony Ward, and some other people. We see Madonna in black lingerie, and another woman wearing nothing but suspenders above the belt. The two women actually kiss, with mouths open, at one point. One net.person commented that this video was something like a bad French porn movie. In the interview, she said she thought she could get away with bending MTV's no-nudity rules once again, as she had with her video for "Vogue", where one can see her barely-concealed breasts. She said she decided to go ahead with making the video, though she did feel worried about all the conservatism on the loose. When told that this was a win-win situation for her, and that she would be making even more money by putting out her video as a single, she only commented, "Yeah, so lucky me." When asked where she draws the line on what she will put into her videos, she stated that she draws the line at violence and humiliation and degradation. When asked about her (in)famous video "Express Yourself," where she crawls on the floor and is chained to a bed, she stated that she was being enslaved by her own desires, that there was no man doing that to her. He asked her what about showing sexuality on TV, she suggested that MTV can have a violence hour and a degradation to women hour, as well as an adult-sexuality hour -- headed with warnings about what's coming so parents can keep such things from their kids if they want to. According to her, why is it OK for kids to watch Sam Kinison spitting on Jessica Hahn, but not two consenting adults displaying affection for each other, regardless of their sex? Forrest Sawyer conceded that Madonna had raised about 30 interesting questions to examine. After the break, Forrest Sawyer asked Madonna whether she would want her own kids watching something sexually suggestive. She responded that she wouldn't be worried, and that she hoped that her video would provoke some discussion of sex between kids and their parents. According to her, too many Americans want to sweep sexuality under the rug, as it were. He commented that kids might get confused by some peculiar sexual fantasies, and Madonna suggested that that might be a very good idea. She once again complained about why the TV networks are so willing to show violence, but not sexuality, and complained that the networks will not even show ads for birth control. He pointed out that the common counterargument was that it is up to the parents, and she responded by charging that a lot of parents are simply not doing their jobs, when one considers all the teenage pregnancies and heterosexual AIDS cases. She insisted that she was being very responsible, that her video was about people being honest about their sexuality, that she deals with sexuality a lot, that she tries to promote safe sex, and that she never tries to promote gratuitous violence and degradation. He asked her what she would say to the feminists who complain that what she does is un-feminist, and she pointed out that, in whatever she does, she is the master of her own fate, even when she acts like some stereotypical bimbo. "And isn't that what feminism is all about, you know, equality for men and women?" Forrest Sawyer asked her what is the next thing we can expect from her, "You want me to promote one of my products, my up-and-coming products?", "My up-and-coming, button-pushing, products?" But she conceded that she will probably explore sexuality further, and that that is a very important issue for her. She ended with "Thank you for listening to me." In the interview, Madonna seemed a bit nervous, as if these were difficult subjects for her, or else she felt that she was not getting her message across. But I think she held up rather well, and posed some very GOOD questions. Why have shameless sexual exploitation and degradation, but not loving sexuality? Why is violence OK, but not sex? Why not have special times of day (or night) for showing anything sexually suggestive? There are some questions for feminists, also. Many feminists have had only too much experience with sexual exploitation, and it is only natural that some feminists think that most heterosexual sex is fundamentally degrading to women (Andrea Dworkin comes to mind). I hope that feminists will take on the question of non-exploitive, non-degrading portrayals of sexuality. And Madonna certainly does not degrade men (let us say) the way that all too many videos degrade women. David Lee Roth's videos come to mind pretty quickly, although DLR has the saving graces of being something of a male bimbo himself and of being thoroughly cartoonish. The Power Station made some truly degrading videos some years back, and they had no sense of humor. It's true that Madonna likes to show off her shapely body, but the context does not seem exploitative to me. And I appreciate that here is someone willing to defend her position on some important issues, instead of sounding dishonest and evasive. And here is one prominent person who does not think that sexuality is something that must be hidden from kids, no matter what it takes. I point that out because there is a school of thought which states that children are innocent little sexless darlings, who must be shielded at whatever the cost from anything that suggests sex, lest they becomes sex-crazed lunatics. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster: loren@sunlight.llnl.gov Since this nodename is not widely known, you may have to try: loren%sunlight.llnl.gov@star.stanford.edu
baranski@meridn.enet.dec.com (Jim Baranski) (01/15/91)
In article <88812@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>, loren@dweasel.llnl.GOV (Loren Petrich) writes...
"it is only natural that some feminists think that most heterosexual
sex is fundamentally degrading to women"
I could not pass this up. It is certainly NOT "natural that...", it's
twisted, perverted, "that...", which is the problem.
I read an interesting article/interview about Madonna a while ago.
She is *very* twisted, and has some very weird problems. I guess
she's just working them out in her own way, but I wouldn't take her
authority on much.
Re: MTV
I knew there was a reason I don't watch MTV.
Jim.