Essay - "Madonna: The Material Girl and her '"Performance(s)'"

Justin Raphael Roykovich
© December 8, 2008

Madonna: The Material Girl and her “Performance(s)”

You wouldn’t let me say the words I longed to say
You didn’t want to see life through my eyes
(express yourself, don’t repress yourself)You tried to shove me back inside your narrow room
And silence me with bitterness and lies
(express yourself, don’t repress yourself)Did I say something wrong?
Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex
(I must’ve been crazy)
Did I stay too long?
Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t speak my mind
(what was I thinking?)
And I’m not sorryIt’s human nature
And I’m not sorry
I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me.(1)

Madonna, one of the authors of the lyrics above, is a very complicated character to me. I say “character” because as with most celebrity, the line between what one “performs” and who one really is can often be blurred. The roles that one takes as a “performer” and the roles that one takes while out of the public eye can be two very different things. Gender theorist Judith Butler argues in her essay “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” that “performing” is something that each of us does every day both intentionally and subconsciously, both in and out of public, due to societal structures that are placed upon all of us(2). Therefore, to some degree, each of us are performing what we are, day in and day out, because it is how we have been taught to perform through a cycle of what is expected, whether that be male or female binary gender roles, or even expanding along the lines of class and ethnicity. Yet there is Madonna, who is notorious for playing with the lines of any confine, who has not had a widely critically acclaimed album in years, who is not on the MTV hits playlists, and whose songs are not on repeat on mainstream radio anymore, but who has managed to hold onto a fan base that stretches beyond all these categories and labels(3) of people, or maybe rather the performances that they project. It would appear that she has one foot in with almost every demographic and that she has the ability to relate to them on some level and fluidly move in and out of those demographics with ease. This notion is made stronger by the fact that although her music may not necessarily be a top seller currently, her concerts and performances, in contrast, are sold out in minutes(4). To see her “perform” is a coveted experience, made apparent by people paying up to $400 a ticket for prime seating. Is that a case of inflated celebrity? Perhaps, but it might also be the fact that the woman can put on quite a show, as well as do so with the underlying subtext that speaks far more about popular culture than what one might dismiss as simply being her on stage, singing lyrics to a pop song.

For Madonna, it is that culture that she critiques, both blatantly and softly, that is another medium for her to sculpt out her performances. Yet those “performances” go beyond just her being on stage singing: they go subtly into the context of what makes up her identity as an artist, as a celebrity and not only as a woman, but as a woman who embodies what could be considered masculine qualities not just only in her stage presence, but also in what has been attributed to her shrewd business skills. It is in this aspect, within the great gender binary, that she is then both able to escape from and remain in that exact pull between the sexes, perhaps creating more of a fluid blend rather than fitting into just a “woman’s” role. It is that she is also able to hold onto and release both the freeing and limiting qualities of the female gender, along with being able to use her experiences in breaking confines to reach out to those still being bound as well break those still holding her within that gender as well. I will get to examples of these in a second.

However, with Madonna there are a few underlying things that must be stated if talking about equality and the quest for it. For one, there is an obvious and sometimes disputed status reserved for her within the LGBTQi community, and in using the lyrics above as example, she is capable of relating well to those who do not “perform” well in the accepted societal parameters. Yet there are also more negative connotations as well, such as pulling from the gay experience with vogueing, and the fame she acquired because of its success. But can her struggle be downplayed because of apparent “compulsory heterosexuality,”(5) that even when “performing” to be something else, Madonna still fits the binary regardless because of her racial and sexual status? It could be said that even her “performance” as a supposed lesbian is based on an imitation by lesbians who base their imitations on heterosexual standards, regardless of the fact that it is mostly dismissed as Madonna just doing what Madonna does best: manipulating the media for her own gain. Is Madonna helping or harming those standards, which harm and prohibit the rights of many of her fan base, by in fact having been married, having children and living a traditionally expected life to some degree? Where does the struggle for freedom of expression end and become the line of wanting normalcy, even if that freedom is to be traditionally normal?

Along with a relation to struggle, through her own journey of becoming the infamous “queen of pop” she has, again, manipulated the media as though it were a medium itself: bending and shaping it to her will, even in the times in which the image portrayed by them about her has been demonizing, giving some voice to others who can also be demonized by the same media outlets. I also realize that there is whole great subtext to Madonna that cannot be ignored: her status as being wealthy, her status as being white, her status as being a celebrity as well as the privilege that comes along with all of that. It is perhaps that privilege that allows her to say that things that she wants to say as well as attain an audience that she wants to attain and maintain. The argument of whether Madonna harms or helps the ones that she makes music for and tries to give a voice to is multifaceted.

Yet that audience that she does have remains one of broad diversity and one that comes together in vigorous uniformity at her concerts. My own personal experience when I first saw her perform live was one of awe, and not necessarily relating to what she did on stage. It was the fact that I was sitting in a crowd full of some 20,000 people and there was an energy, a synergy and an excitement floating among all of us at the spectacle that was taking place. Sitting amongst me were people of all genders (both within the binary and not), sexualities, races and ages who were engaged with this woman on stage singing, of all things, pop music. Granted that is boiled down a lot, and to Madonna’s credit, it is the way she uses her songs in concert as a visual tool that makes her performances so engrossing. It is the combination of the visual and the auditory. And yet it is also the experience of witnessing the performance that was just as important to the actual performance itself. It was the fact that Madonna could fluidly relate to all of these people on some level and get them to care about the fact that she is who she is. She is able to attain through performance what is at the essence of coalition building: a unification among those whose backgrounds are so diverse, using art to convey a message through ordinary pop music to help that unification along its way.

Madonna’s recent tour, The Sticky and Sweet Tour, was no exception to that experience. On October 11, 2008 masses of people stormed Madison Square Garden in New York City to see her convey this ideal of a pop standard that has made her famous. Though she did numerous songs dating from all aspects and time periods of her twenty-some-odd year career, there were three aspects in particular that stood out in resonance at this idea of fluidity within Madonna’s performance not only as an artist, but also in taking on identities of being a woman and moving within categories of gender and sexuality placed upon her. She in no way, at least to an extent that I am aware of, has ever publically denied being labeled as a gender based woman(6), and yet she, whether she consciously is aware of it or not, is an example of how one can be seen to able to take on qualities of a male based gender in order to further themselves in a patriarichally structured society. It is these imitations/limitations of performing as a woman, both on stage and off and also performing with masculine qualities, both on stage and off, that has given her the respect and the credibility of those who watch her perform any of those roles, and gives even a more potent relevance to the way Judith Butler talks about fluidity throughout all labels and categories.



The first notion of this “fluidity” comes through the way she actually performs, by herself, on stage with no others. During the first act of her show, she performs her song “Human Nature,” whose lyrics are printed at the beginning of this essay. Madonna herself is a sight to be seen: the woman is 50 years old, and assumptions based on her cosmetic appearance aside, for lack of better terminology, she is built like a tank. She stands in a black two-piece leotard, fishnet stockings, knee high heeled boots and a silver top hat, the first of many originally masculine possessions. However the woman is physically strong. Her muscles flex and contract with every stroke she makes on her guitar, and the muscles in her thighs ripple with every step that she takes around her stationary microphone stand. Biologically speaking, she gives the notion that men are naturally physically stronger a run for its money. However, beyond the physically masculine characteristics, she “performs” as a woman. She wears make up, her hair is long, she makes no effort (in any capacity at all) to hide her breasts. She is obviously of the female sex. Yet one can argue that she commands her crowd like a man. She barks out orders, “sing louder” or “clap harder motherfuckers.” She holds her presence, on her own, with a respect and an authority that rivals that of any stereotypically masculine identity, giving challenge to the patriarchy that she critiques through her work, and that would have held her down if she had tried to come out a few decades before the 1980’s(7).

She then sings about just that: “Human Nature” is a song that was written about how she has been blamed for blatant sexuality and exploring the erotic both of the self and of others within her work, assumedly getting more flack for it because she is a woman. She embraces the typically misogynist term of “bitch” to remind the audience that she is, in fact, not anyone’s and that she is guilty of nothing but expressing herself. Yet the struggle to express oneself, even though this may sound somewhat trite, is what makes it easy for her to be relatable especially to minority groups. It is the anger and the frustration within the song itself that gives her a power and a voice that carries over to those hoards of people screaming back the words at her while she sings them.

Through this specific performance, she gives reference to another pop celebrity in that of Britney Spears, who appears on the video screens behind her while she plays. Britney is taped in an elevator, appearing to be trapped and attempting to break out of her confines inside the metal box. Through out the entire song, Britney’s voice can be heard integrating lyrics as Madonna sings, giving another reference to a star who has had a tumultuous time in the media. Yet it is the confines that both these women long to be free of, and it is one that Madonna plays with, albeit not necessarily totally breaking out of.

After “Human Nature,” Madonna goes directly into “Vogue,” one of the main songs and subsequent performances and imagery associated with it, that throughout her career that has made Madonna a “gay icon.” She took an underground dance, mainly found in inner cities among those of racial and sexual minority and made it into a hit song. Aside from the relevance pertaining to the fact that essentially a white woman took a black and gay performance (on many levels) based dance and turned it into a huge money making success, she also took a facet of unrecognized society that was “closeted” and turned it into something that was instantly recognizable, even if perhaps it did lose some of its meaning among the way. It is similar to when both Butler and another theorist, Eve Kofosky Sedgwick, refer to “the closet” and the coming out experience as not necessarily a positive thing. While Butler and Sedgwick argue that once one leaves the closet, there is in fact a continual and very real danger due to the subjective and relative attitudes to those around once one is “out into a . . . new unbound spatiality,(8)” at least “Vogue” had a relatively successful coming out story, especially monetarily. Yet while the pros and cons of that action is a topic for a whole other study(9), the fact remains that regardless of impact, this move has made Madonna an automatic reference to the subsequent gay culture it references. It is also interesting to note that despite the reference to an underground, African American, homosexual dance scene, the crowd went absolutely wild during the performance(10).

However, for this incarnation of “Vogue,” Madonna has an updated feel to the song, integrating the actual music from her most current popular song, “4 Minutes.” She is now joined by her dancers, who are costumed in a cabaret style: the women wear nude colored leotards with anatomically strategically placed black accentuations with short black bobs, while the men are shirtless in black pants with criss-crossing suspenders and black masks and gloves. While the women’s dress has an obvious sexual undertone, the men’s also do as well, but on a somewhat contradicting level. For example, the inclusion of masks can be a reference to s&m practices, or on a more dangerous level it can be associated with crime. The idea of a black mask is a classic reference to male thieves, often preying upon “helpless” women in old time movies. Yet the men wearing the masks here are “vogueing” and performing an unabashedly gay-originated dance. So the question begs, then what are these men guilty of, if anything(11)? For it appears, at least in this instance, that the women are the ones who hold the power and Madonna is the clear ringleader.

It even gave the impression that while both the sexes were being exploited, the men were being more so in some ways because of their lack of clothing in comparison to the women, as well as a subtext of subordination in coming out after the women and not having an equally strong presence that is continuing that power struggle of performance, a clear departure from the standards of yesteryear. Yet while the supporting cast lend to the overall ambiance of the performance, the “performance” by Madonna herself is what makes this particular segment so powerful: it is her full control over those around her, both on stage and in the audience that makes this as potent as it is. It is her performance, exuding those male qualities while there is an underlying subtext of domination over the male dancers all while dancing an underground gay dance, video screens of pretty lacey things in the back. It is a gender smorgasbord(12).

This continuation of power shifting and “gender bending”(13) between the sexes continues throughout the entire concert, with the exception being Madonna, who as a female, never loses control over any of those under her rule, women or men or anyone inbetween. There are countless other gay, gender and race related references: from using animations of prominent 1980’s gay artist Keith Haring during her performance of “Into the Groove” to rocking out like a past hair metal band member on songs like “Hung Up” or “Ray of Light,” to different ethic references of Latino and Romanian heritages and the merging of cultures in “La Isla Bonita” and “Spanish Lesson,” to a surprisingly very moving and empowering video montage using a remix of her song “Beat Goes On” to inspire political involvement for change and helping other people around the globe. However, one aspect of her concert and performance that I found to be most striking might be considered by some to be insignificant, for was only a tiny part that stuck out in my mind as being the most shocking for me, even for Madonna.

She's not me

She doesn't have my name

She'll never have what I have

It won't be the same

She is licking her lips

And she's batting her eyes

She's not me

She's got legs up to there

And such beautiful hair

She's not me

Oh, devoted for life

Make a beautiful wife

She's not me

If you spend some more time

I guarantee you will find

She's not me


I know I can do it better(14)

The segment came in the middle of her performing a new song, one of relative obscurity, off her current album Hard Candy entitled “She’s Not Me.” The song on face value is just about another woman taking over Madonna’s identity to steal her lover. However towards the middle of the performance of the song, at the end of the catwalk, in the middle of the audience, there rises out of the pulpits of the stage four of Madonna’s female dancers, each dressed as the singer at a different point in her career. One is dressed in a white wedding dress from the music video of “Like a Virgin,” another is dressed from the video from “Open Your Heart,” another from “Material Girl” and the last from the video of “Express Yourself.” Through the end half of the song, Madonna goes to each of the four women dressed as older incarnations of her, and in escalating violence beings to disrobe and dismantle them. She never shows nudity or even goes beyond simply removing accessories, but it is the temperamental throwing of a shoe here, or the taking off of a glove there that is a subtle yet effective act in portraying the stripping of possession. The women posed as her are all stationary, like life sized Barbie dolls, until Madonna goes up to each of them and jerks their limbs around while taking off the various articles. There is a slight narcissistic/sexual exertion to it as well, from Madonna running her hands down the thighs of herself from “Open Your Heart” to the fondling of a breast inside the infamous “cone bra” in “Express Yourself.” Madonna then goes to all of the women, and enacts poses that each of the women follow as she sings about imitation, identity stealing and the fact that Madonna knows that she “can do it better,” apparently even better than her old selves.

Towards the end of the song, on the last bit of chorus before it gets remixed and manipulated, Madonna goes up to the “Material Girl” version of herself and forces her standing arm down to the incarnation’s side and looks her in the eyes and sings “she doesn’t have my name.” She then goes over the incarnation from “Open Your Heart,” and sings “she’ll never have what I have,” as she then throws off the incarnations short blonde wig, straddles her and sings “it won’t be the same” as she leans in closer just prior to a full faux make out session. A vocal remixing of the song then takes over, at which point Madonna stops singing live, and goes over to the last two incarnations. Madonna’s voice sounds over the speakers, repeating “I’ll never let you forget” over and over again, as she goes over to the “Like a Virgin” version and pushes her upper body down to which the incarnation buoyantly pops back up and she forces her down again. Then as the phrase “She’s not me and she never will be” plays over and over, Madonna picks up a wedding veil that she previously ripped off the “Like a Virgin” incarnation and goes over to the “Express Yourself” incarnation, rips off her blonde wig and begins to tie the veil around the version’s neck in an effort of strangulation just before, again, imposing violent kissing on the incarnation. The incarnation resists her shoving and pushing and pops up and down, but Madonna then storms away to begin to violently dance and remove her own costume as “never will be” is played over and over again through the speakers.

While there is an obvious reference to the identities that Madonna has had through out her career and the projection of them to onto her current self, when juxtaposed with Butler, it makes for a highly interesting critique of both outer and inner imitations that people push against other people and also that we push against ourselves. Butler talks about the fact that she feels that “drag” and the act of dressing up outside of one’s gender or label is not one that is solely confined to the “performances” of drag queens and kings. For Butler, it is the performance of how one is taught to be the outer projection of that specific role, in the case of drag queens, sometimes that of a woman, but more so in Butler’s utopia as that of no gender whatsoever. However Butler’s argument is that that very notion of “pretending” and imitation can be applied to our own everyday lives as participants in society and the way we each portray ourselves and our chosen genders and labels to those around us(15).

There is also the use of drag as an underlying metaphor that Butler uses to describe her theory of gender imitation(16), and here with Madonna, there is a use of it that is highly introspective, because she is performing that theory on herself, which from my view of interpretation, is a very brave thing to do. For while Madonna is performing the drag that she does on an everyday basis according to Butler, but Madonna is also critiquing the performances of her gender that she has done in the past, and is obviously not happy with them, resulting in strangulation and shoe throwing. While Madonna may not be critiquing the exact reason why gender is imitated or impersonated according to Butler, she is in some ways critiquing her role in making that gender an ideal for others to imitate. It is that notion of failing -that Butler says is the “process of imitating and approximating its own phantasmatic idealization of itself – and failing”(17) - in which Madonna realizes that her attempts in the past to be something that was not in fact her, and that those incarnations failed. Those incarnations of her were not her, she now realizes, and while they exist in her past, she is rejecting them out of her future. There is a hope in that realization.

The fact that Madonna, in this specific example, is dismantling the judgments made upon her from her past in a very embodied way struck me as very powerful, and what slightly shocking to me because it is a very real and primal reaction to having those judgments held above one’s head for so long. There is a very real and “human” quality to wanting to rip away what holds one back, whether they be chains of stereotypes, limitations on the way one can lead their lives in binary gender dynamics or, in Madonna’s case, all of the above combined with the frustration at not being allowed to be seen in any other way besides that of what made her popular twenty years ago. It was also the violence in which Madonna did it: it was the using a wedding veil, a prop usually used to bring two people together, to strangle her former self, while using the lyrics in the background as a subtext to her actions. It was the act of using a prop usually used for joining instead being used to divorce meaning. The repetition is one that we hear over and over and over again which is strongly related to things that one hears over and over and over again in the capacities in which they are minoritized or reminded of their inequality(18). There is a stripping away that is both hopeful and necessary, even if it has to be violently done so.

Judith Butler makes a comparison to Aretha Franklin singing how someone makes her feel “like a natural woman.” Butler goes on to critique this statement, explaining, in essence, that there really is no such thing as a natural woman, if in fact Aretha’s statement is true, then what is like to feel like an unnatural woman(19)? She then asks the question, “what if Aretha were singing to me . . . or to a drag queen” (as Butler presumably, according to her own theories, does not identify as a woman). It is for this reason that Madonna draws the crowds that she does. While she is a master at combing art with stage spectacle, it is that the ability to transcend those performances that we all consciously and subconsciously perform, as well as herself perform to those individuals who are tired of stationary rules. While Madonna herself performs the roles that we all perform, we all do so within a limited space for movement. Should those spaces be expanded? Of course they should. However, until that happens, and until those working for that very expansion can reach their goals, these are the limitations in which we all operate. It is necessary to critique it as such, but given what she’s got, Madonna is able to transcend the limitations placed on her and create a space where “it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, if you’re a boy or a girl.” Corny and cliché? Perhaps a little. However it’s obvious that the crowd loves and appreciates her for creating that space as they scream back at her those same words.

1. Madonna. “Human Nature.” Bedtime Stories. Maverick, Warner Bros. 1994. CD
2. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003.
3. I use “categories” and “labels” knowing full well that Butler would fully disagree with assigning people either.
4. “Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet Tour tickets to set ‘tour record.’” NME: First for Music News. December 1, 2008. Web. December 7, 2008. http://www.nme.com/news/madonna/41374
5. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 312.
6. Although I can imagine her saying something along the lines of this Butler quote, that “the prospect of being anything, even for pay, has always produced in me a certain anxiety . . .” Butler, 307.
7. Although one could question if she upholds the positive qualities of a male gender through these examples.
8. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 308.
9. As I’ve also realized in editing this, that this paper can be a lot more longer than 12 pages.
10. Having this concert be just prior to the election, it is also interesting to note the outcome of Proposition 8. However, something also tells me that those who voted against Prop 8 probably were not vogueing with Madonna at her concert.
11. Which in my mind can range from exerting male priviledge to just being damn good dancers.
12. On a side note, it is also refreshing that with Butler’s acknowledgement at the “violence of public erasure” of LGBT related things, that at least in some capacity something as seemingly simple as vogueing was indeed still ingrained in mainstream culture almost twenty years after the song came out.
13. Unfortunately, there is no real example of total gender binary breaking, smashing or destroying.
14. Madonna. “She’s Not Me.” Hard Candy. Warner Bros. 2008. CD.
15. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 313.
16. Ibid
17. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 313.
18. Or even as Butler says performance is repeated over and over again, Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 313.
19. Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” The Judith Butler Reader. Blackwell, 2003. 317.

Justin Raphael Roykovich
© December 8, 2008
J.M. Kass