I have been an admirer of Madonna’s music and life story since Holiday was released in 1983. I was 23, grinding away in medical school, and her lilting voice helped give me some distance from the sight and smell of my cadaver and a break from the seemingly endless hours with textbooks.
Madonna rose to prominence with her music- most of which she has written and produced herself- her provocative persona and performances, her business savvy (Madonna is a founder of Maverick entertainment company) and her quest for unique and meaningful expression.
Despite a personal history of tragedy and trauma, she did not succumb to drugs or the lack of personal accountability and abandonment of perspective which afflicts so many of the famous. Her tenacity has led to a tremendously successful and long-lived career. She is highly admirable.
Her recent acceptance speech of Billboard Music’s “Woman of the Year” award “as a woman, as an artist, as a human” was an eloquent, authentically embittered and heart-felt personal assessment of her journey- its perils, its damage and rewards.
Madonna exhorted women “to appreciate our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support and be enlightened by.” This message resonates with sodality and wisdom.
So it was with surprise, disappointment and bewilderment that I listened to the speech Madonna gave at the Women’s March on Washington. Many of her sentiments were laudable, but she completely lost me at this line:
“And to our detractors that insist this March will never add up to anything, fuck you. Fuck you.”
What appalls me is NOT the profanity. For example, Madonna’s prior sentence “It took us this darkness to wake us the fuck up”, shows emphasis and does no harm to her message.
It is Madonna’s expression of profound contempt – “fuck you. Fuck you.” for anyone who is a “detractor”, anyone who doesn’t believe the March “will add up to anything” that floors me. Right there she has made the huge and terrible error of bigoted thinking, which she so castigates in others. Madonna has just totally damned and devalued anyone who doesn’t think just like she does.
I think this is a terrible message to the many that look to her as a strong woman to be emulated and to learn from. It’ s much worse in my view than her confession that she thought about blowing up the White House-Madonna makes clear she has no intent to go through with any such incendiary plan, and I see her statement as much more an attention-grabbing device than any true incitement to violence. Still an unwise announcement, unless you welcome visits from the Secret Service-but then, public display is part of Madonna’s style.
No, the huge mistake Madonna made was lumping all those who may not understand the cause, may not agree with her, may not think the March efficacious into, shall we say, a “basket of deplorables” that deserve only contempt. As strong women, shouldn’t we be explaining, negotiating, teaching, temporizing? Bringing others up to speed instead of striking them down in their ignorance? I have never found insulting the opposition helpful in getting my point across.
Now, especially in the wake of this contentious election, with proponents of different political, religious, and moral views all riled and fearful, we must find ways to communicate with those of strong differing beliefs. We need to build common ground, not form verbal barricades behind which we fling barbs at each other.
This being said, Madonna is a human person, and people make mistakes. I still look to Madonna as a person of strength and value. Perhaps the best lesson we can take from Madonna’s Womens’ March speech is to avoid the pitfall of expressing preemptive contempt for others.