Core Post #4: Madonna and Death

As we watched Truth or Dare: In Bed With Madonna, there was one moment in the documentary that was of particular interest to me, and that was the legal kerfuffle in Toronto. Before the show, a crew person informs Madonna that Canadian policemen are at the stadium and are threatening to arrest her if she performs the masturbation scene. While Madonna feigns fear and anxiety about the situation, it is fairly obvious from the way that her eyes light up that she is experiencing pure excitement at the prospect of her arrest.

            In a way, I understand this. Much of Madonna’s career was predicated on the fact that she could provoke and cause controversy, particularly the kind of controversy that would demand press coverage. However, there is a certain aspect of her behavior in the face of imminent legal action that seems to me to be deeply revealing in terms of her white privilege, and ultimately, in terms of the lack of potency to her political statements.

            The fact is that of course Madonna would not be afraid to be apprehended by policemen. Madonna is a white woman, and a blonde white woman at that. There is no history of brutality and murder of her people at the hands of North American police officers. On the other hand, it might have been quite a different issue if her back up dancers had been threatened with arrest. I would be willing to wager that most of her back up dancers had a family member or friend who suffered at the hands of the criminal justice system and its servants in their lifetimes, and would not have taken the threat of arrest so lightly.

            In bell hooks’ essay “Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?” she states, “White folks who do not see black pain never really understand the complexity of black pleasure.” (hooks, 28).  Today, there is a term that floats around the inter-webs on Tumblr and Instagram that has been appropriated from Black American culture, and that term is “giving me life”. It is used in the presence of a certain type of performance mostly, as in “that pose is giving me life”. I would assert that this colloquial phrase that I’ve seen so many white people use without anything remotely resembling deep thought exists because of white supremacy, and white supremacy’s assertion of the imminence of Black death.

Venus Xtravaganza, a dancer featured in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, was found murdered in a New York Hotel Room 2 years before the documentary made her famous. 

            As Cvetkovich touches on in her article on Truth or Dare and Paris is Burning, Madonna’s performance of progressive identities have drastically lower stakes than the performances of the men and gender-queer people of color on Paris is Burning. While Madonna might be dancing to keep the camera on her, the people who are forced to live in a society that demands their labor and ultimately their death are literally dancing for their lives.