Madonna was one of the big speakers at the Washington DC Women’s March. When it was Madonna’s turn to speak, she… was Madonna. It was pretty typical, actually. She dropped F-bombs (which CNN aired live) and she said she felt like blowing up the White House. Madonna later offered an apology, and I even defended her a little bit because I thought she didn’t make an explicit threat, she was just talking about how she felt following the election, and her sentiments came very close to mine.
When Madge apologized, I even thought, “yay, now she won’t be the focal point of what was a really historic worldwide march for women’s rights and equality.” But of course that’s not what happened. What happened was that critics pointed to Madonna and used her as a way to discredit the marches. Newt Gingrich is one of many on the far-right to use Madonna as the “face” of the marches, and Gingrich said Madge is part of “an emerging left-wing fascism.” Right. I’m rubber, you’re glue: the political philosophy. When you’re a fascist, everything looks like fascism. But Madonna hasn’t only been criticized by fascists. She’s also facing criticism from her allies, like American Treasure Cyndi Lauper.
Cyndi Lauper criticized Madonna’s profanity-laced speech at the Women’s March on Wednesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live. The 63-year-old singer was asked by host Andy Cohen, 48, about her thoughts on Madonna’s fiery speech on Saturday during the massive rally in Washington, DC. Madonna, 58, told the audience how she at times was angry after the election and had thought ‘an awful lot about blowing up the White House’.
‘I was glad that she went,’ Lauper said. ‘I think it happens a lot when you are really jacked up, feeling your emotions. I don’t think it served our purpose because anger is not better than clarity and humanity.’
Lauper praised Scarlett Johansson, 32, for her personal speech about using Planned Parenthood services as a teen.
‘She shared her story. It was clear and it was eloquent. Yelling doesn’t. It just jacks people up but it doesn’t communicate any type of humanity or any kind of story that would open another person’s mind,’ Lauper said.
This brings me to something I’ve been thinking about since the Women’s March: are we in danger of bringing respectability politics into a feminist movement? As in, only certain kinds of “respectable” or “camera-ready” women are allowed to speak about these issues? Should it be a free-for-all of diverse opinions, racial diversity, religious diversity and diverse messaging? Or should the Resistance speak with one camera-ready, politically correct voice so as not to dilute the message? I’m really asking, because I don’t have the answer. I agree with what Cyndi is saying here, but I also think that if women are criticizing other women/allies, we’re not spending enough time on the real enemies.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Pardon me but our country is in the middle of a fascist takeover and our civil liberties are being raped even as we speak. Who gives a sh*t what Madonna said? It’s total fiddling while Rome burns.
+10000. Well said Carey. I for one, could care less what Madonna had to say. I’ll focus on the many other, far more eloquent and relevant speeches made that day. Oh… and Rome burning…
What carey said.
Yep.
When the fash is rising, there’s only one game in town and that is opposing the fash. Simples.
There will be plenty of time to argue about presentation and method and sort out non-fascist differences of opinion once the fascists have been got rid of. The only thing that matters in the face of a fascist threat is defeating the fascist.
It’s referred to as “the dead cat strategy.” We can thank our limited attention spans for allowing us to be distracted by whatever bright shiny object is being shaken in our faces, regardless of who’s shaking it.
BTW, Trump is a master at it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2017/01/25/e59a8ab6-e34a-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?utm_term=.ee788198be9f
The other side is always going to find something to use to discredit everything. After the marches, a guy I work with was ranting about madonna and I blew him off, so he switched it up and started ranting about all the litter left behind after the march. They don’t like the message, so they’ll find something petty to focus on, that in their mind, invalidates everything we’re saying.
Two people I know were ranting about little from the march on Facebook, so I shared a post from the Boston Parks Department thanking the marchers for taking such good care of Boston Common, complete with photos of a pristine park.
Because DERAILING is one of the easiest tactics in changing the narrative: Point to a hair in a soup in the hopes everyone would loose the focus on what is actually important.
That being said, there MUST be space to call out privilege and blind spots from inside the house! Madonna, a rich white cis lady, has plenty. Just imagine a black or brown person talking about bombing the white house — the backlash wouldn´t just be opinions on the internet, LGBT+ and/or activists of color actually get killed for much less.
Blah, I don´t care for Madonna and her tricks to stay controversial/relevant to popular media, but she absolutely should be aware of the costs people pay whose backs she steps on for her little speech.
Also … shouldn´t Madonna, a person who is on camera since the 80s, be *camera-ready*?
This. When people don’t like the message (which, let’s face it, the Trump supporters- who normally are the first to scream and cry about ‘free speech’, special snowflakes, and political correctness ruining this country when they or someone they agree with gets criticism, or when a Nazi- someone who’s already out there promoting ideologies that lead to crime and violence- gets violence dealt back to them) they’ll always nitpick. In the march that was held in Hartford, (a city that does have its crime) there were ZERO arrests made, and from what I’ve been hearing from people involved in marches in other places, very few arrests were made, but the right is already framing the women’s march as terrible women behaving terribly. That’s why I think people telling liberals ‘make sure you’re always nice and polite about Trump and his supporters so we can win them over’ are sort of wasting their time.
ITA @Otaku Fairy. It’s a complete waste of time. The people bitching about Madonna were looking for reasons to discredit the march. If it wasn’t Madonna it would be someone else.
I think the answer is to just have a variety of voices speaking out and don’t let anyone get overshadowed by the more incendiary voices. Let the Madonnas be the flame throwers. There IS some value in having someone like that in your movement. Let other people speak with a more nuanced thoughtful voice. We should be free to say what we want. Worrying about how the other side will use the flamethrowers against us is a waste of time. Anyone that chooses to ignore all the thoughtful intelligent voices at the march in favor of bitching about the Madonna types was never open to listening anyway.
So many woman and men marched on behalf of women and their beliefs and it was wonderful. Madonna does what she always does and made it about herself and fell right in the trap that was set for some fool to fall in.
^^This^^. Whomever invited Madonna to speak knew what they were getting into. Frankly, I wouldn’t have had her there because she will always generate controversy. I’m just happy it was cold enough that she covered her ass. I do think that the message has to be conveyed in such a way that it reaches the average person. I also don’t think Cindy criticized Madonna so much as she answered a question and in the process, contrasted Scarlett’s speech (which was fantastic) and Madonna’s (which was about being controversial, as always).
Nothing about her speech had to do with herself.
Nearly 3 million people, worldwide, marched in order to speak out, use their voices, but it’s Madonna’s opinion that has people “still talking”? No wonder we want to burn this shit to the ground.
I agree. I didn’t even pay attention to Madonna. She had nothing to do with it.
Don’t loose the message in the medium. Madonna is a singer, not an orator, and she shouldn’t be looked on as more than she is, a woman, an American, an entertainer. she shared her feelings, her thoughts, her anger, which is what the March was about, uniting pissed off people from all walks of life to show Emperor Baby Fists (a moniker that makes me giggle every time I read it) that we will not go quietly into that good night, we will stand and fight.
So well said!
“but I also think that if women are criticizing other women/allies, we’re not spending enough time on the real enemies.”
I find this ironic because people just jumped on Taylor Swift and people have been bashing Madonna since she spoke up.
I agree with the quote however.
‘Left-wing fascism’? What does that even mean? I mean, I am not trying to whitewash hard left’s history with violence and suppression or anything but that is such a weird thing to say. Fascism cannot be left-wing.
As for Madonna, I understand the frustration and I am not even American. But i assume White House means much more than Trump and that is a very unpleasant mental image for American people. The problem with these kind of quotes is the fact that they will be used against us. I am sure that people in the march, including Madonna, did not actually want to bomb the White House but it doesn’t really matter. This qoute will be used to discredit her and the march too.
A more traditional interpretation of fascism is authoratarianism or dictatorship. I think it evolved to mean right wing dictatorship after the rise of left wing dictatorships, aka communism. So, technically, left wing fascism can exist…
This is what worries me (well, one of many things that worries me). The Right will criticize any opposition, but the Left will still fight amongst itself. It’s a distraction and it feeds right into their plans. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Ignore this s—t and focus on what the POTUS and Congress are doing.
I’m not interested in what any of these celebrities had to say in their speeches. Madonna, America, Chelsea Handler, Scarlett….I think they are a distraction and trivialize our movement.
I think in the future, now that we’ve drawn attention to our protest – that we lessen the length and amount of celebrity speeches at our rallies and utilize more credible speakers that use professional SPEECH WRITERS. Our message must be more carefully crafted in the future to maximize impact and articulate our position.
After seeing the #notmymarch posts on Facebook, we have a LOT of educating to do.
Madonna’s F-bombs are just locker room talk! Girls will be girls. That’s how they talk sometimes… Just locker room talk…
The one silver lining, I suppose, is that none of these morons appear to be truly cunning like Darth Cheney. They are all so thin-skinned and emotionally transparent. It’s the true tactic of the bully to point fingers and wail about someone else doing exactly what YOU’RE doing.
“Should it be a free-for-all of diverse opinions, racial diversity, religious diversity and diverse messaging?”
It already isn’t. They gave the explicit cold-shoulder to pro-life feminists who wanted to march with them. Basically, agree with the central party line regardless of your religion/opinion/message, or you don’t belong with us and your viewpoints don’t matter.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph have posted pictures of members of their order proudly and happily marching in various marches across the country last Saturday. They weren’t given any cold shoulders from the looks of the pictures
This wasn’t supposed to be a party; there are actual laws and lives at stake. Stop acting like ensuring reproductive rights is somehow a mean girl tactic. Oh, those Planned Parenthood supporters are all so cliquey! See: http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/president-trump-womens-rights-abortion.html
There’s no such thing as anti-choice feminist.
When she said ‘FU’ I agreed. It felt like a release for me, hearing that. Constantly seeing so much ignorant hate online- it felt good to have someone answer back so short and sweet 🙂
As for the other comment she made- anyone with a brain knows it was an aside, a feeling, a way to express her feeling. Only anyone with an agenda would take it and make it try to make it more substantive.
Madonna has been pissing me off the last few years, but she was awesome in Washington. All the speakers and performers were.
Cyndi Lauper is more of a passive activist and she is entitled to her opinion. I do like the way it was stated, but let’s remember Madonna has always been fiery & aggressive. I wasn’t a big fan of her speech about outliving Prince & Michael Jackson, but I did take into account that Madonna (for everything she is) she is also a survivor. Both career & as we later found out a survivor of assault. She hasn’t gotten to and remained where she is by just letting people walk all over her. Everyone of their speeches was a punch in the gut to the Administration and I thought is was wonderful. Commenter Irene was completely on point about the co-worker who switched from one bitter tirade to another. I’ve had Trump-ette sidestep, backpeddle & softshoe arguments in ways you wouldn’t believe (its that damned Kellyanne effect) & in the end they when they are exhausted & think they have exhausted YOU, they finish by calling you a Liberal. Hell yes I AM A LIBERAL
There was clarity and humanity in her speech. And anger and attitude. Cmon Cyndi have a seat.
When you criticize hate and violence with hate and violence, then your message loses all its value. I’m glad for people like Cindy Lauper, that understand the whole point of protesting against this government. Also, Madonna still thinks she’s an influential icon, and I’m sorry but she might have been in decades past, but not anymore. She’s not helping any cause. One of Trump’s problems is that he talks out of his ass, with no filter or thought of the consequences and she’s doing the same? She needs to shut up.
When people are bringing the violence to your doorstep, it stops being a choice. Supremacists are about the eradication and oppression of peoples to consolidate their own power – there is no fighting that with education. You may get away with fighting clean in the beginning, but it won’t take long to get ugly if the worst of our fears come into fruition.
If you know anything about history, you should know that violent revolutions against oppression end up becoming violent oppressive governments too. Inciting people to violence might feel like the right thing to do at the moment but it only leads to an even worse path.
Respectability politics seems like something that’s already been a problem within the movement for a while, and I think it’s one of feminism’s and liberalism’s big weaknesses instead of it’s strength. As far as Madonna’s comment about the white house goes: On the one hand it’s a stupid thought to have because blowing up the white house would hurt lots of innocent people and accomplish nothing, and I thought liberal criticism about white privilege (basically, if a Muslim person in this country or any American who happens to be of an ethnicity or skin color that makes racists think either ‘terrorist’ or ‘illegal’ had said that, things would not have gone over as smoothly) was definitely valid. On the other hand, I couldn’t really summon up any outrage over Madonna’s words or the context of them because she wasn’t advocating blowing up the white house, and plenty of us have had some type of thought we probably don’t feel comfortable even typing on this website about Trump, Pence, and Bannon since election day. I know I have.
From the things I’ve heard about Madonna, she does have a bad attitude, is self-absorbed, and has definitely engaged in some messy (and in some cases, unacceptable and problematic behavior), so not all of the criticism she attracts is invalid or wrong. But a lot of the criticism she gets really is disgusting and filled with misogyny, (and ageism) and really does highlight the respectability politics problem, Madonna is a woman whose manner of presenting herself and whose career and politics have always spit all over and trampled on the patriarchal ideas about a good, meek, modest (both the humility version of modesty and the sexual purity version of modesty), chaste, respectable lady. And we’ve seen that not just with Madonna, but with any woman: Any time a woman chooses to live, present, or behave in a way that’s an FU to those sexist respectability politics, the same old, same old ugly, ignorance, and the misogyny come out on both the left and the right.
BTW, why isn’t there a update saying the Madonna adoption story wasn’t true?
Yes, you’re right. Giving a damn about her f-bombs and blowing off steam is a distraction. Remember, authoritarian societies thrive in an environment where there are lots of rules about how everyone is supposed to act. RESIST in any way you can. Be yourself. Put more bumper stickers on your cars if you have them, wear buttons, and share your feelings with others. IF YOU ARE NOT ANGRY YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!
We’re not in danger – it’s already happening. I’ve already gotten into it with an older coworker throwing a fit about the hats – IDGF about your pearl clutching when it’s my rights on the line. Women being told to be nice is just another way of silencing them.
You can criticize how other people are getting things across and still be allies. Malcolm X and MLK Jr were different, criticized each other.
I think Cyndi made a good point without putting Madonna down…..
That last statement sounded like TSwift’s special place in hell for women who attack other women. C’mon!