What stands out to me about Madonna’s career when watching
Truth or Dare is how committed she was to establishing her identity as a star
and artist. The amount of opposition that she faced because of the sexualized
nature of her act was immense, but she never once even considered toning it
down. It also goes to show how important her identity was to her. She knew how
important her sexuality and visual style was to her performance, and the film
shows how much she built up her persona by herself. Despite the attempts of her
team, outside sources, or her own family to dial it back, she knew that she
could use her sexuality to push her stardom to a whole new level.
It got me thinking about the construction of a star image
and how much power a star could have in their own manipulation of their
persona. Madonna exhibits a clear sense of control over her physicality and
chooses to add an electric sexual energy to create a controversial but critical
component of pop culture of the last 30 years. What’s interesting is that
Madonna’s sexuality seems to not be driven from purely her body but rather what
she does with it. Whereas someone like Marilyn Monroe or Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s body is considered so unique and otherworldly for its time,
Madonna’s feminine beauty is relatively comparable to other models or sex
symbols of the 80s and 90s. But her energy and open acceptance of not just a
sexual appearance, but her sexual mentality and charisma puts her in a class of
her own when discussing sex symbols of the 80s and 90s. Madonna infused
sexuality into her lyrics, her music videos, her onstage performances, and her
offstage life. She understood how to create her image and then carefully
cultivated her career in order to make her persona unforgettable.
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