Why do some people hate Madonna so much? Madonna bashed for her “Tribute” to Aretha Franklin
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That’s it. I’m done with all this Madonna hatred bullshit. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that she does or says in public, Madonna is always getting bashed and trashed and smashed and criticised and abused and crushed. Enough already.
Seriously, I’m fed up with all the bashing. It would seem that Madonna just cannot do anything right.
It was not a tribute, goddammit
Let’s be absolutely clear that Madonna WAS NOT ASKED TO DO A GODDAMN TRIBUTE a the VMAs, OKAY? (I’m sorry, Aretha, for the language. It’s just, these people get on my nerves).
When I first started to see all the buzz about Madonna’s so-called tribute to Aretha, I must confess I thought: nothing new there. Madonna has always been all about Madonna, so what’s all the fuss about? We all know she’s a self-centred bitch, but we love her all the same. Madonna wouldn’t be Madonna if she wasn’t a self-absorbed egocentric. Bitch, She’s Madonna!
But then I got intelligence on the facts. Twitter and internet in general filled me in and gave me an insight of what was happening. In particular, Twitter user @musique_163 published a self-explanatory tweet (thanks Adrian). I was surprised at the information I got from him, and then other sources, including Madonna herself, via Instagram, where she responded to the backlash.
Very clearly explained, Adrian (@musique_163) said that the reason why Madonna’s speech was all about herself was because she was merely presenting the Video of the Year Award.
Then Madonna herself explained that last minute, she was asked to share some anecdote about Aretha she might have. As Adrian said in his tweet: this was technically/originally Madonna’s moment.
So, Madonna was never meant to make a tribute to Aretha. She simply shared a couple of stories with the audience which had Aretha Franklin in the background. Alright, self-centred as you should expect from Madonna, the stories revolved around her, but what else was she going to talk about, for christ’s sake?
You can read the full transcript of Madonna’s speech here.
People took for granted that Madonna had been asked by MTV to pay tribute to Aretha. As it usually happens, everything blew out of proportion as haters, dogmatic prejudiced maniacs, ignoramus, etc., started to jump to conclusions and condemn too quickly and too fiercely Madonna’s speech, thinking (instead of ensuring) that this was THE TRIBUTE. The press worldwide, as well as social media, are still despicably propagating and echoing this manipulation of the facts and MTV says nothing.
This was entirely an MTV cockup, not Madonna’s.
Furthermore, Aretha Franklin’s family have said that they were not upset by Madonna’s speech, nor would have been the Queen of Soul herself.
Why do some people hate Madonna so much? Not a good girl.
I guess it all comes down to one simple thing: she’s never been a good girl. According to narrow-minded people and a male-dominated society, that is. What is even more unforgivable: she’s 60 and still not reformed, come to her senses, started to behave. My god, at your age, how dare you, Madonna? Unforgivable.
Well, whoever thinks that, you what? GET OVER IT ALREADY. She’s not gonna change, and we certainly don’t want her to change. Self-centred, egomaniac and all.
But, is Madonna a bad person?
Since I don’t know her personally, I can only consider the evidence I gather through what I know. I’ve been a fan for 33 years now, so I think I have a good deal of information to form an opinion. And I tell you, despite having been branded a “non-good girl”, Madonna, in my opinion, is much more of a good person than many others who get through life pretending to be what they’re not. We’re so fooled by appearances.
So, for some narrow-minded people, she’s not, she was not, she will not be a good girl. Let’s see what the bigots who so much hate Madonna have in common. Conservative, short-sighted, judgmental people characterise themselves by
- their aversion to anything that has to do with change and progress;
- a firm, conscious desire to return to the way things were in the past;
- a wish to preserve the traditional morality through cultural norms;
- a strong inclination for prejudice and too quick, arbitrary judging of anything that doesn’t automatically fit their rigid, square minds;
- they don’t even bother to WANT to learn the facts, they already know everything there is to know;
- they also feel profound disdain and intolerance for forward-looking progress, broad-minded liberals, openness to a multi-cultural environment, etc., etc., etc.
Do you now understand why do some people hate Madonna?
Madonna has been hated from day one mainly for holding a mirror in front of people so that they can see a reflection of their own stupidity. She’s always challenged the status-quo which, in short, goes against all of the above. That’s what it means to push the envelope. Madonna’s aim has always been to fight hypocrisy and double standards; to test the limits of the establishment and to make people use their own brain, form their own opinions, question things and beliefs. These, for some, are traits of very, very, bad people.
How Madonna made us question ourselves and pissed off the bigots
So, how has she managed to do that? How does Madonna make us question certain things, beliefs, established norms, ways of thinking and, most importantly, ourselves?
Madonna always spoke to the marginalised and the underdog, including women. Yes. Because we’re still marginalised, maybe you’ve noticed (not equal salaries and all that). And Madonna must have felt marginalised in a male-dominated music industry back in 1983 onwards. But she wouldn’t have it. That’s why she defined herself on her own terms from the very beginning.
For Madonna, I believe, to convey a message she wants to put out is ever so easy; I think it’s in her nature. These things come to her quite naturally. Then she just needs to kind of turn her idea into something tangible, concrete, material. A song, a leaflet, a dance, a whole album, an interview, a whole concept for a concert, a book. Madonna will use whatever vehicle she sees fit for the purpose.
BUT. As straightforward as it must be for her to come up with ideas and realising them, there’s also the downside: it is risky to challenge the status-quo; it is dangerous to reveal yet another layer of your soul; it will be troublesome to overcome the bigots. Madonna knows that it will not be an easy ride and still she doesn’t back down.
I’m just going to mention two events, which have spontaneously come to my mind, though there are dozens more.
#1. How can we stop the intolerance towards people with AIDS, she must have questioned herself many times through the 80s and 90s. She lost too many friends to AIDS. Apart from attending and promoting numerous benefits events, Madonna included an AIDS and HIV fact sheet in her album Like a Prayer. Madonna’s aim was to expose the facts about the illness and to stop the fear and hatred towards people with AIDS. It was a brave thing to do and it wasn’t welcome by everybody.
#2. Why isn’t it ok for a woman to enjoy sex too, she questioned, amongst other things, through her album Erotica and her coffee-table book Sex, heavily criticised at the time, now considered ground-breaking works of art. It was a bold and very risky thing to do. In fact, it might have blown up her whole career if … well, if it hadn’t been Madonna.
Plus, after all that, she’s never let the critics get in her way, and that makes them mad. Madder.
Those two events were gutsy and pissed many people off, much like numerous others. And when you start pissing people off, you start being disliked and bashed and castigated. But Madonna isn’t controversial for the sake of it, or so I choose to believe (you see, I don’t have the facts because I’m not in Madonna’s head, neither are you). I honestly don’t think that she cooks up controversy after controversy. As I said before, she just wants to put her message out there for whomever wants to pick it up. Whether it be about AIDS, Catholicism, women rights, sex or raising Malawi.
The Madonna influence thing
I am not blindingly influenced by Madonna. I certainly do admire her for countless reasons that are irrelevant in this post. But I do try to gather the facts and to be as objective as possible when it comes to express my opinions. Every public figure and celebrity are exposed to criticism, and I understand that. However, criticism needn’t be insulting, nor disrespectful. What the haters do isn’t just criticism, it’s castigation. And I wonder: are you so perfect, pure, impeccable, righteous? Who are you to chastise her? Who are you indeed? Because, bitch, SHE IS Madonna.
People don’t like her because she’s vulgar and rude. Most people who do have morals find that annoying. The problem is that some of the things she’s ‘unapologetic’ about are absolutely WRONG, depraved, amoral, mean-spirited, shameful and Anti-Christ. I was fine with her when she first came out although I never cared for ‘Like A Virgin’ and did not quite understand the concept as I was 10 years old. In 1989 I lost ALL respect for her when she came out with Vogue. She became this offensive, rude, narcissistic, condescendingly vulgar exhibitionist who seemed to be trying intentionally to annoy people of faith. Virtuous Christian women DO NOT want to be like Madonna. They don’t want their DAUGHTERS to be like Madonna. She made a comment once that really sealed it for me that she IS trying to corrupt the morals of women and youth everywhere by stating ‘Everybody wants to get in my pants. Even God.’ As a Christian I cannot accept or stomach that kind of logic from ANY sound minded human being. Even MADONNA knows that kind of attitude is wrong. What has God ever done to HER to make her feel JUSTIFIED being the way she is? There is NO EXCUSE for her behavior and sick antics. People with morals get tired of that crap year after year. And her man-hating feminist attitude(she treats men like pure crap because she’s obviously jealous she can’t BE one)has caused her to sink even lower over the years. She makes me feel ASHAMED to be a female I hate to say. Feminists have THE WRONG idea about how women are supposed to carry themselves. God told us exactly how to conduct ourselves and HIS WAY is AWESOME. We don’t need Madonna’s help. No thanks!
Dear Lulu
First of all, thank you for reading this blog and for having taken the time to write your comment.
As much as I respect everyone´s opinion and right to express themselves (something I learned from Madonna, amongst others), we both are at opposite ends here. However, trying to refute each and every point that you are trying to make would take me to write another post!
I only have one question: you refer to Vogue as the 1989 turning point for you as an “offesive, rude, narcissistic, condescendingly vulgar, exhibitionist…” track or video. Are you sure you mean Vogue? Vogue was not released until 1990 and I think you might be referring to Like A Prayer (1989) or to Justify My Love (1990).
Thanks again for your comments and I trust you will continue to read our posts.
Esther