Like A Virgin.. Or Not :: essays research papers fc

Like a Virginor notMadonna had always been a consecrate icon until the early 1980s when the name Madonna developed a dual connotation. The introduction of Americas top female put forward symbol Madonna created an image far opposite of the previously know hallowed one. In John Fiskes essay Madonna, he depicts the vocalists character, portraying her as socially and semiotically powerful. Although his essay is currently outdated, Fiske illustrates an deceit of Madonna that Generation Xers eventually accepted and will probably never forget.Sex has always been a controversial matter in American familiarity. Before the 1980s, those that openly articulated their views about stir were thought of as promiscuous and perverse, unless they were male. Perhaps, that is why the aura of Madonna stirred raving disceptation across America. Fiske notes that her image was not a model meaning for childly girls in patriarchy, but a site of semiotic struggle amidst the forces of patriarchal cont rol and feminine resistance, of capitalism and the subordinate, of the adult and the young (Fiske 282). never before had a wo part presented herself so provocatively yet so comfortably. In the beginning, Madonna ultimately sacrificed sexual purity. Her daring exploitation of sex from a feminine point of view was definitely a breakthrough in 1980s American society. Often, she dressed like a man and grabbed herself in sacred and unseen places. Actions like these, as Fiske points out, presented a holy terror but not the traditional and easily contained one of charwoman as a whore but the more radical one of woman as independent of masculinity (Fiske 284). Young girls regarded her actions not as tarty or seductive but as completely acceptable. Eventually, they embraced her image and strived to follow her role model of the independent and sexually licentious woman (Fiske 283). Society has finally accepted feminine independence and accredited Madonna as the pioneer for introducing tha t autonomy. In many ways, she now represents the womans metamorphosis. As Fiske noted she began by showing both her pleasure in her own physicality and the merri ment she finds (found) in admitting and expressing pleasure it is (was) a sexual-physical pleasure that has (had) nothing to do with men(Fiske 285). While this may have been an impression of Madonna in the 1980s, she has evolved into what society deems as the epitome of badass woman utterly independent. Fiskes essay does not really have much application to the perception of Madonna in todays society.