"...for a boy to look like a girl is degrading 'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading But secretly you'd love to know what it's like Wouldn't you What it feels like for a girl --Madonna, "What It Feels Like For a Girl"
She's Maddie as hell, and she's not gonna take it anymore. By now everyone who's addicted to entertainment news knows that this week Madonna's video for her song "What It Feels Like For a Girl" was rejected for heavy rotation by MTV and its affiliate VH1. Too violent, they say. This, from a corporation that makes a mint off marketing gangsta culture to the suburban masses.
Directed in Los Angeles last month by Madonna's husband Guy Ritchie, the "Girl" video depicts an extended fantasy sequence in which Maddie and her sidekick, a befuddled escapee from a rest home, abandon their benumbed lives (and a slew of tranquilizing prescription drugs) to go cruising for a little freedom. Their vehicle: that most all-American masculinity symbol, a muscle car (with "Pussy Cat" plates). Their mission: to appropriate, then annihilate, everything that hinders their emancipation.
To this end, Madonna totals a carload of lecherous rednecks, takes control of her own purse strings by robbing a businessman at an ATM, cows a pair of cops with a realistic-looking water pistol, demolishes a parking lot of tricked-out cars, mows down a pack of hockey players and gives all her loot to a haggard waitress at a burger joint. The night ends with the pair stealing a guy's hot car and wrapping it around a telephone pole.
In an ironic but business-savvy twist, AOL -- that bastion of art and free thought -- has snagged the banned "Girl" video and made it available in streaming video (keyword "Madonna" for those with an AOL account). On the AOL Madonna message board, discussion has erupted, with posters stating a few obvious facts. First, they claim that the video isn't that violent, unless mayhem sans blood can be called gore in a time of graphic carnage in entertainment. Second, they say that the music industry readily accepts violent imagery from male performers -- and videos that propagate myths of male dominance and female submission -- while pulling up its skirts at a woman's depiction of how those same myths affect her sex.
In a press release, Madonna says the video "shows my character acting out a fantasy and doing things girls are not allowed to do. This is an angry song, and I wanted a matching visual with an edgy dance mix."
On its own, "What It Feels Like For a Girl," which is indeed remixed for the video, isn't really an "angry song." It pleads for understanding more than it demands respect, lacing gender politics with images of "hair that twirls on finger tips so gently, baby.'' But it also smacks of sincerity when it bemoans the ache of being smart while being expected to play dumb -- a conundrum Madonna solved long ago but obviously remembers well.
The video adds a needed kick-ass element, and the result is pure, no matter how you view it: As a marketing ploy, it's a worthy successor to every stylistic move Madonna has made since she funked up punk aesthetics and softened soul to find commercial success in the '80s. She knows that anger sells right now, and she's a salesperson par excellence. She's also a veteran of MTV censorship: In 1990, the network refused to air "Justify My Love" because its sexuality was deemed too overt (not understated a la Sisquo's later "Thong Song"); in 1992, "Erotica" was relegated to late-night rotation for the same reason (female-friendly booty not allowed during prime time).
Madonna knew her "Girl" video would spark controversy and that MTV would probably ban it. Much fanfare and publicity, more record sales. That's why she's one of the few independent and financially successful women in a male-dominated music business. She's her own Svengali and a media wizard.
But the "Girl" video is more than just a good marketing scheme. Its suppression by a mainstream channel rockets the song's theme of sexual hypocrisy out of the theoretical realm and into MTV's corporate offices. The double standard at play isn't even subtle: A video like DMX's thug-happy "Party Up'' flies high on music television; but when a woman, even Madonna, attempts to document politically loaded female rage -- well, that's something else. It's natural for boys to behave violently. It's an unacceptable rip in the social fabric for a girl to do the same.
I love this video, crass opportunism and all. I only wish we had a few more like it. Just as Eminem's "Stan" (which also features a car wreck) illustrates what happens when a young male snaps, Maddie's "Girl" shows what happens when a woman who's tired of being kicked around decides to kick back. Though they come from opposite sides of the gender divide, the two videos are bookend studies in cultural meltdown.
Which leads me right back to the question I asked in my last column: Where's the female Eminem? Until she turns up, I'll second the fan who wrote on the AOL board, "I'm totally against cloning, but now that I think about it, we should clone Madonna."
Maybe she's just a slick appropriation artist, but in a world ruled by Britney Spears, she's the best thing we've got.
------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------- Neva Chonin writes about music and culture and technology and stuff for the San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone and other publications.