Madonna's Vogue: Challenging Identity

"All you need is your own imagination. So use it; that's what it's for!"

-From "Vogue" (Madonna)

The American music video has long been a breeding ground for socially subversive identity texts, from the subtle yet aggressive challenges provided by TLC to the abrasive, affronting imagery of Marilyn Manson. But no one can claim the level of transgression attained by Madonna. This essay will explore one of her most well-known texts and its implications for culture, identity, and social norms.

Recalling the golden age of Hollywood, "Vogue" opens on a black and white panorama of mannequinized men in suits. The sleek synthesizers hearken their passing with an heir of sophistication while they gaze on meaningfully, like living portraits in a galleria. But beneath the polish lies an unmistakably dissonant tone from the cultural construct of old Hollywood, exemplified as the camera reaches Madonna, appearing as Marilyn Monroe aside from her form-fitted sheer attire. She then recites the signature, "Strike a pose," as the vogue of yesteryear is meshed into vogueing, a then-popular gay dance craze.

According to Foucalt:

"...The body is given meaning and wholly constituted by discourse. The body vanishes as a biological entity and becomes instead a socially constituted product which is infinitely malleable and highly unstable.'' (364)

Madonna's clear grasp on this concept splashes itself across the screen as the remaining four minutes of the video seek to subvert every cultural notion of identity by reversing their mirror image, displaying new ways of being. One could easily overlook the irony of identity production being on display within the text of commodified media with the "body as both a product and a process" (365). As each male struts down the runway, the body being sold is a clear indictment of a society structured around the male gaze.

Audience provocation is underhandedly embedded in the text. "Vogue" practically dares a challenge, more so each time Madonna coos the word seductively, yet harshly, into the camera. Challenging deep notions of sexual identity, sexually liberated females display their bodies without male dominance as mostly suited males become the subject of the gaze, leaving audiences intentionally where figures such as Elvis previously left them accidentally. As evidenced, it is not "sex itself [that is] of most interest," rather associated "phenomena" including "male-female difference" (365).

Perhaps the greatest threat to patriarchy from "Vogue," or any Madonna text for that matter, isn't the overt challenging of the prevailing structure, rather the stubborn refusal to acknowledge its existence. While men dance suggestively for the camera and women caress their own bodies, not a single frame hints at an alternate reality. Madonna isn't silencing her protesters within her texts in the way a pop artist such as Britney Spears may ("Touch of My Hand"), she's rather coyly responding: What protesters?

Madonna also understands the inverse of the former part of the following statement by Helen Kopnina: "Representation of the Other or exoticism are good selling points in the global market." Such cynicism strikes a populist (academic) chord, and granted a great deal of structured inequalities arise from the propagation of Otherness. But overestimating its value as a selling point fails to acknowledge both issues of universality (the term "universal" is problematic but will have to suffice for the purposes of this essay) and longevity. As the most prolific female artist of time, specifically because of texts structured as "Vogue," Madonna rather eradicates the Other, rendering the reflexive properties of her artistry universal in the sense that exclusion can only arise from self-infliction or an inability to properly read the text.

"Vogue" states explicitly what Madonna's other texts state implicitly: "All you need is your own imagination." While unlikely to be read by most for its full implications regarding reality as a social construction through reflexive identity, imagination is undeniably a "social practice" which this text engages (367). The song/video navigate this construction in a manner both articulate and shrewdly simplistic:

"It makes no difference if you're black or white, if you're a boy or a girl. If the music's pumping it will give new life. You're a superstar. Yes, that's what you are! You know it!"

Such a quote brings to light an interesting tonal quality, one that almost seems to contradict itself through its implicit dissonance. Equality is embraced as the ideal while the artist is upheld as an authoritative voice, making demands and dominating the screen, creating a quite intentional "power distance" that finds itself more fully displayed in longer forms such as Truth or Dare (1991). It's as though Marxist ideals compete with the neo-liberal popular music structure in a duel whose fate capitalism has already decided.

However, if one can disregard the commodified structure, "Vogue" does seek to transcend existing structures through subversion of racial, sexual, and gender lines. But its methodology is unique in that is accomplishes this goal through what has traditionally been considered one of the most frivolous elements of society (at least in the US): fashion. Kopnina states: "Fashion provides a short-cut by which we enter another identity" (378). Unfortunately, Kopnina again chooses a cynical lens through which to frame the prior statement by connecting it to insulation, but nevertheless, her previous point is well-received in the context of the media text under examination (378).

It is important to acknowledge that "Vogue" was not released in a vacuum. While the ideologies exemplified in the video and song would still lend themselves to controversy, the early 90's release rendered them even more subversive. The video clip was allegedly set to be edited for the introductory segment with Madonna in a sheer dress due to the partial exposure of her breasts, but she is said to have refused an edit. The fact that the video was allowed to play unedited on MTV speaks more to the demands of a corporation than the shifting of cultural ideology, although an argument could to some extent be made for the latter.

It is also of note that throughout the clip, body figure remains an unchallenged element. As Madonna displays her fit body, her hyper-attractive male and female back-up dancers pose and move through choreography for the camera. Not a singe individual could be considered "unattractive" by US standards. Rather, these figures embody a look and physique not shared by the majority of US citizens. The reasons for such portrayal are glaringly apparent, recalling again the notion of commodified body (365).

Nevertheless, "Vogue" remains to date one of the most subtle yet articulate challenges presented by a mainstream text to the notions of gendered and sexual identity within American culture. The ability of such a culturally subversive series of texts (video and audio) to retain corporate relevance allows a glimpse into the subconscious of culture. And with decades passed since its release, "Vogue" becomes merely a single artifact in the succession of ideological evolution within media texts.

References

Kopnina, Hellen. "The World According to Vogue: The Role of Culture(s) in International Fashion Magazines." (2007) Dialectical Anthropology. 31:363-381. Springer.

Madonna. "Vogue." (1990) Sire, Warner Bros.