Madonna Stirs Controversy
Madonna is either synonymous with popular culture or the Virgin Mary, but one thing is certain; wherever Madonna makes her appearance millions will follow. Many things can be said about Madonna: unconventional, anti-institutional religion, feminist and gay movement icon, a shrewd business woman, and, as quoted in Pamela Robertson’s book, Guilty Pleasures, “She’s become a repository for all our ideas about fame, money, sex, feminism, pop-culture, even death.” 1(Page 117) Michel Dion’s essay, “Madonna in the French Press”2, reveals the reasons why the French Press react to Madonna in such an extreme fashion, and one reason would be what he calls the “religious transgression”. (Page 285) To correctly understand Dion’s findings and the conclusion presented, a complete and accurate definition of pop culture is needed to fully realize the nature of Madonna’s “business”. In the essay “Madonna in the French Press”, he uses the Critical Approach of Intercultural Communication. The Critical Approach is a process of analysis whereby Dion attempts to analyze the ubiquitous coverage of Madonna in the French media. Dion states that he counted and analyzed over 800 articles in the French press on Madonna i
n a year between October 1992 and October 1993. Dion points out that in this one-year period Madonna published her “…. Highly controversial book of nude photos, Sex, released a compact disc, Erotica, and played in three films, A League of their Own, Body of Evidence, and Snake Eyes.”(Page 284) Dion then divides this analysis into two categories; “favorable overall” and “hostile overall”, after which Dion states, “There isn’t any middle ground”. (Page 287) Having said this, it appears that Madonna has become a phenomenon unto herself. Everyone’s perceptions of her are probably not “who” Madonna is. We are not certain, after everything read, that Madonna stands for “anything” as much as we want her to stand for “something”: “our” something. As Pamela Robertson said, “She’s become a repository for all “our” ideas…” There is no denying that she is extreme, and that she engages every controversial subject, from sex and gender roles to the gay and religious subcultures. These things do not define Madonna as much as they supply her with the content that shocks the world and generates income for her. Another way that Dion attempts to understand Madonna’s effect on the French press, is he specifically deals with what he terms “the religious transgression” of Madonna, admitting that there are two other transgressions, one being “sexual and the other, racial.” However, C.R. Schwichtenberg (1994) and T.K. Nakayama (1994) have already studied these issue
Some topics in this essay:
TK Nakayama,
Communication Contexts3,
Dion Madonna,
Pamela Robertson,
Steve Anderson5,
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Sex Page,
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essay “madonna,
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essay “madonna french,
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Approximate Word count = 1027
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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