A
book I came across called "The Anthropology of Justice", describes
Moroccan society about 60 years ago. In this society it was absurd
to describe someone, their position or achievements without also describing the
context of their surroundings.
Our context is who we are as much as our
individuality is. I recently had the good fortune of listening to some very
intimate stories about people I see everyday. I got to hear them speak about
the families they come from, what it was like for them growing up and the very
personal challenges they face. Without this context I would be blind to who
they really are.
When we meet someone we don’t introduce
ourselves as so-and-so, studying such-and-such, who was raised by a
single-mother, with an alcoholic father who was emotionally and/or physically
abusive. We’re not told the stories of mothers who failed in attempts to abort
their babies, out of the mouths of these babies now fully-grown profoundly
shaped by the context of that single experience.
Not all contexts are difficult and painful,
some contexts are privileged, some are blessed and these stories are also worth
knowing, these contexts are also worth describing – if for no other reason than
to inspire the types of stories we want told about us by the contexts we exist
in.
What
we do have is a CV, or an academic transcript. We have our Matric results. We
have business cards. These are supposed to represent who we are. We all
acknowledge that they can never paint the full picture but to a large extent we
rely on them to paint a pretty accurate picture, or contribute in a significant
way to the picture we have of someone we don’t know.
We
represent ourselves “objectively” through these tools, we show a self that is
easy for people to read and categorize. But, the de-contextualized versions
described encourage us to actually live a diluted version of ourselves. We are well
aware that others will never have full knowledge of us and, if this is the case,
why not tell the simple story of ourselves in the best way possible despite the
truth it hides?
But
in this truth is us, in this truth is us. In the context that we leave out is
the depth of our human experience with all its complexity and contradiction.
Yes, we can never be fully unpacked because there is always more to unpack,
more to examine, more to understand. Our contexts and the way they shape us
through our own reading of them are dynamic and infinite – in this way the
subjective is divine.
It
sucks that unless I picked up that book and interrogated the idea of
context-specific descriptions of individuals I might never have fully
appreciated that our lives are ever complex and never truly represented in
their complexities. I now accept this and try a little harder to understand
every person I meet in his or her context, and complexity. This recognition
makes it easier to understand, to forgive, to communicate, to appreciate, to
love, to accept.
Pop culture time kids! I do love me some pop culture, but more specifically, I love trying to figure out the meanings and constructions within the world of pop. Generally, pop culture expresses the most popular and commercial icons, trends, pleasures and even information of a current time, traditionally, with a strong theme of sex appeal underlying this. It is a culture that is hip and cool, and new and trendy- a culture that captures the imagination of the masses worldwide. It is this very nature that makes me want to look at pop culture critically and not just be sold what it is selling.
This frame of mind coupled with my incessant MTV watching (Music is my thing), I stumbled across Madonna’s latest comeback video attempt, “Give me all your luvin” featuring 2 of my favourite girls, M.I.A and Nicky Minaj, and I noticed something interesting...Madonna uses the biggest, brightest and coolest pop stars of the moment as support, and then makes them lame, uncool and awkward in order to portray herself as the Queen Bee, Queen of pop. This may be apparent in her own representations, but let’s be honest, this isn’t really who she is in the pop music world especially amid bad ass female pop talent like Nicky Minaj, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift who are ruling HARD. I have proof to support my argument about Madonna’s fake reign, using this music video as the primary evidence! (Woohoo!)
The Set Up
So the music video is set in some made up streets of a suburb, amongst the main characters in the video – the cheerleaders consisting of M.I.A and Nicky Minaj, the football team and the Lady Madonna herself. Interestingly she initially appears under the rouse of a suburban mother with her baby in a stroller, but quickly abandons that role and changes into a sexy, trendy, “young” thang that is literally followed and adored by the football team. The general idea of the video is also very interesting to note – it’s a very American construction that brings up ideas of American teenage movies and series, like Bring It On, Not Just Another Teen Movie, She’s All That, Glee, Hellcats, One Tree Hill...the list is kind of endless. Things like the mean and domineering, yet popular prom queen/head cheerleader, the cheer leading squad made up of the hottest, most popular girls in the school, the hot football team jocks and their Prince Charming quarterback, girls on cheer leading team always yearning to be the head cheerleader, etc. These ideas carry strong connotations that we have been conditioned to because of the repetition of these stereotypes in movies. You know I’m right.
Well, in this video, the same stereotypes are perpetuated to suit what Madonna wants to say about herself. Except, here, poor M.I.A and Nicki Minaj, who are probably bigger stars than Madonna in this day and age, come off second best to Madonna. I say this particularly because of their role as cheerleaders, where they traditionally function to cheer on the football team. You could also say that they are the cheerleaders who want to be like Madonna, the head cheerleader. Here, the football team are totally infatuated by Madonna and throughout the video, they work overwhelmingly to protect a very oblivious Madonna. They throw their jackets on the floor for her to walk on, protect her from the rain, carry her around. They basically give “all their love” to Madonna. The cheerleaders, particularly M.I.A and Nicki Minaj, innocently cheer on and support their football teams’ strong adoration of Madonna. These bad b*tches (in reality) cheer Madonna’s name and all the attention and focus is on Madonna, with their pop power being majorly overlooked. They are merely Madonna’s back up. This pop power/fame/popularity is quickly redirected onto Madonna, and this is held throughout the video.
The Makings of a Marilyn
The next major scene that supports the argument that Madonna is making M.I.A and Nicki Minaj her b*itches, is in what I call “the Marilyn scene”. No, it’s not a fancy shmansy name, it’s just because all three pop stars dress up as Marilyn Monroe in this scene. This is established from the cues of the their short platinum blonde hair, diamonds and pearls, red lips, artificial moles and white dresses, all trademarks of the traditional Marilyn Monroe look. Now let’s think about this...The iconic Marilyn Monroe image is obviously aesthetically best pulled off by Madonna, given that she is most similar in looks to Marilyn Monroe – she too is Caucasian, is a natural blonde and she too signifies a very sexualised persona.
Enter the brown girls. M.I.A is Sri Lankan and Nicki Minaj has her roots in Trinidad and Tobago. They are not fair in completion. They are beautifully brown, exotic and different, as opposed to the blonde bombshell. It is essentially because of this, that in this scene, they look more as though they are playing dress up, where as this look suits Madonna to such an extent that she actually looks like a spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. M.I.A and Nicki Minaj look unnatural, inauthentic and seem to be parodying Marilyn Monroe, instead of representing the ultimate blonde bombshell as Madonna is successfully doing. They seem over-exaggerated, with M.I.A especially coming off as a little slutty with that way short skirt. M.I.A also flips the bird to the camera, a boldness and rebelliousness that is very opposite to the Marilyn Monroe persona. This makes her seem even more un-Marilyn like, and more misfit-like. To me, they, look kind of embarrassing, kind of fake, kind of undermined. When compared to Madonna, this look does not suit them at all - they look awkward and made-up, while Madonna naturally carries this look. In so doing Madonna is portrayed as the ultimate blonde bombshell. This also reaffirms the spotlight on Madonna, even though in this scene M.I.A and Nicki Minaj perform their parts of the song.
Oh no she di-nt!
But hold up. This is not the first time that Madonna has pulled this dirty trick....Remember the2003 MTV Video Music Awards? Britney and Christina were the biggest thing in the world, both with highly successful careers at that point. They were the best thing since Madonna! They were the ultimate and inevitable pop heiresses, when Madonna just HAD to kiss them both during their collaborative VMA performance. SHINE STEALER. To me, they seemed like pawns in Madonna’s performance game. Even though they were controversial head-lining kisses, they also worked to weaken and homogenise Britney and Christina, and focused all the attention on Madonna, as the “bad girl”. Mission accomplished, Madonna.
But wait...there's more!
Madonna additionally attempts to purport her dominance in the last scene of this video, where the mood is triumphant and M.I.A and Nicki Minaj are nowhere to be found. Here, Madonna’s identity is emphasised, and she holds the football helmet up high as if she has won the ultimate prize within the video. She is the queen – a metaphor probably inserted in there to remind us that according to her, she is still the Queen of Pop. It’s a little sad, because this is self-given and not really reflective of the pop audience. It’s also sad because M.I.A and Nicki Minaj are back-up singer accessories to Madonna in this music video, and their real power, influence and relevance is undermined – a major theme in this video.
So Madge has been caught out and....
I don’t necessarily see a stable, overarching, ruling place for Madonna in today’s pop music landscape. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge (old) Madonna fan, but although she has the history, she doesn’t seem to have the relevance in pop music today, especially amidst bold, unique stars like M.I.A and Nicki Minaj who have their own voices and stand points, who write their own songs and don’t necessarily conform to pop traditions. The pop audience and their expectations have also changed, and we do not want or expect the same old sexy, blonde, bubblegum pop star, as has been tradition. We want variety, rebellion, intelligence, grit, representation. Madonna knows she doesn’t have this power and perhaps this is the reason she secretly steals the shine for her competition. She wants us to give her all our loving, but she is not as worthy of it as other pop stars are to us. In order to get it though, Madonna will steal your shine...At least she's been caught out. At least she’s trying.
I was supposed to troll the streets to find swag shit to share but I haven't been on the streets in months, I don't have a camera and I'm way too comfy behind my laptop...plus there are other guys doing that so I'll just link you to them.
