04/14/15 Reading Core Response #4

The bell hooks essay was also interesting since it explores the blonde ambition to be black. I think this comes from a highly Orientalist root, meaning that the seemingly "different" and "exotic" culture would somehow be the exit to white's internal struggle to find oneself and better oneself. Tolerating other culture is a one thing, but I also can understand hooks's point of how African American culture is too much related to white supremacy and racism can offend Madonna's attempt to be race-neutral. In reading Cvetkovich's essay, I had concerns with applying some of the ideas of the essay (e.g. Madonna could afford to be a female spectacle because she is in a white mainstream culture) to my own situation, being an underrepresented Asian woman. Seriously, there is rare depiction of an Asian woman in Hollywood movies or even in the music industry. In contrast to underrepresented or marginalized race women, I think Madonna could be successful in being a subject, rather than an object of the gaze because there was enough representation of white women throughout culture in the first place--the starting point is different. I highly enjoyed Cvetkovich's essay since it has a different perspective on how Madonna represents herself. When watching the movie Truth or Dare, although Madonna is choosing to represent herself masturbating or gender-bending, I still thought in the point of view of different people, her method of representation or the visuals still is in the realm of jeopardizing herself into the male gaze or the to-be-looked-at-ness. In other words, was her wearing a highly sexualized or even fetish-like woman's undergarment with a man's suit pants really the visual of an empowered woman? Also, I enjoyed the notion of Madonna still being in the capital world, being consumed or commodified even though she tries to reveal everything about herself. In a sense, her backstage shots are showing how she is preparing herself to be exploited to the fans, to the concert production team, to the media, and to the society. I do think Cvetkovich respects Madonna as an artist or respects her professionalism and I do too. But I think when creating a documentary film about someone, since the genre of documentary is highly tied with revealing the truth, there should have been more caution or more intention before creating the documentary. It is in a sense, be seen truthful to how stars are all about their constructed images and how all the points that Cvetkovich and bell hooks make, but for a person who expects to see "the real Madonna", I think the movie is quite unsuccessful in portraying the humanized Madonna.