Madonna, Bell Hooks essay: Weston-Smith Core post #5

It is indeed a little ironic that the week we discuss Madonna and her "white womanhood" Madonna makes headlines after performing and making out with rapper Drake at Coachella Music Festival on stage.

“White women ‘stars’ like Madonna...publicly name their interest in, and appropriation of, black culture as yet another sign of their radical chic. Intimacy with that ‘nasty’ blackness good white girls stay away from is what they seek. To white and other non-black consumers, this gives them a special flavor, an added spice. After all it is a very recent phenomenon for any white girl to be able to get some mileage out of flaunting her fascination and envy of blackness.” (Hooks, 157)

This “phenomenon” that Bell Hooks writes of in her Chapter on Madonna in Black Looks, Race and Representation entitled “Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister” is one that Madonna certainly had a hand in starting, but also one that has gained even more traction with her own continuation in 2015, as well as with new stars. One of such stars that comes to mind is Miley Cyrus. Often compared to Madonna, Cyrus consistently appropriates black culture in her music, style, and appearance. Despite Madonna being publicly trashed for her appropriation of black culture in her music and performance many years ago, Miley Cyrus has experienced the same backlash in the last two years.

While it seems like the shock of a white female star appropriating black culture should have been somewhat dulled over the last decade because of Madonna’s--and a few others’--participation in it, it still makes certain people as angry as ever--as can be seen by the reception of both Cyrus and Madonna in recent years. This is why Madonna’s performance at Coachella is still relevant to the same conversation Bell Hooks discussed in her chapter over 20 years ago.

Like the masses of angry or disgusted white women in America, Hooks also disagrees with Madonna’s appropriation of black culture. But her disagreement stems from a completely different argument. While many white women disagree with Madonna’s behavior with judgmental and racist tones, Hooks’ disagreement stands up for black culture. Hooks sees Madonna’s appropriation and commodification of black culture as threatening. To Hooks, Madonna is so envious of black culture that she threatens to destroy or take over it. She writes: “White folks who do not see black pain never really understand the complexity of black pleasure. And it is no wonder then that when they attempt to imitate the joy in living which they see as the “essence” of soul and blackness, their cultural productions may have an air of sham or falseness that may titillate and even move white audiences yet leave many black folks cold” (158). By this Hooks is saying that if Madonna relied on a black female audience, she would not be famous still. It is her white, female fans who supported Madonna to super stardom because they admired Madonna’s “connection” to black culture--her “radical chic.” Something so interesting, yet so hard to achieve for just anyone.

So, when Madonna took the stage with famous, African-American rapper Drake, it seemed as if she really had made it. There she was, dancing around him and on top of him while he sat on a chair center stage. Kissing him and commanding him, Madonna was in control. “Consuming her desires” or “flaunting her fascination” as Hooks might say if she had seen it. Now, it is not their different races that made the act at Coachella so alarming to so many. Rather, it is Madonna’s way of acting, her performance, her need to impress, that made it disturbing. It is moments like these that show what Hooks means by Madonna’s appropriation being threatening. In her Coachella performance, Madonna fumbles with her envy and desire of black culture. She does not empower, she endangers and embarrasses.