Carol Gnojewski - Madonna: Fighting for Self-Expression

Published in 2018 by Enslow Publishing, LLC.

101 W 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011

Copyright 2018 by Carol Gnojewski

Additional materials copyright 2018 by Enslow Publishing, LLC.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gnojewski, Carol, author.

Title: Madonna : fighting for self-expression / by Carol Gnojewski.

Description: New York : Enslow Publishing, [2018] | Series: Rebels with a cause | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Grades 7-12.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017029955 | ISBN 9780766092556 (library bound) | ISBN 9780766095526 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Madonna, 1958Juvenile literature. | Rock musiciansUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. | Motion picture actors and actresses United StatesBiographyJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC ML3930.M26 G65 2018 | DDC 782.42166092 [B] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029955

Printed in the China

To Our Readers: We have done our best to make sure all website addresses in this book were active and appropriate when we went to press. However, the author and the publisher have no control over and assume no liability for the material available on those websites or on any websites they may link to. Any comments or suggestions can be sent by email to .

Portions of this book originally appeared in Madonna: Express Yourself by Carol Gnojewski.

Photo Credits: Cover, p. 3 Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage/Getty Images; p. 7 Paul Morigi/WireImage/Getty Images; p. 11 Frank Micelotta Archive/Hulton Archive/ Getty Images; p. 13 Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images; p. 18 NC1 WENN Photos/Newscom; pp. 21, 42, 45, 79 AP Images; p. 26 Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images; p. 29 Time & Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; p. 38 AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo/Getty Images; p. 49 Philip Ramey Photography, LLC/Corbis Entertainment/Getty Images; p. 51 Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images; p. 54 Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Images; p. 58 FranzPeter Tschauner/picturealliance/dpa/AP Images; p. 60 Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images; pp. 64, 90, 96, 101 Kevin.Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images; p. 69 Frank Micelotta Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 71 United Archives GmbH/ Alamy Stock Photo; p. 76 Alain Benainous/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 82 Frank Micelotta/Getty Images; p. 86 AFP/Getty Images; p. 92 Jeff Fusco/Getty Images; interior pages graphic element Eky Studio/Shutterstock.com.

A fter a brief introduction by comedian Amy Schumer, who opened for Madonnas Rebel Heart tour a year earlier, international pop icon Madonna energized protestors who stretched for miles on the streets of our nations capital when she took to the stage as a surprise guest at the Womens March on Washington on January 21, 2017. In solidarity with more than five million sign-waving, pink-hatted attendees in sister marches around the world supporting womens issues and civil rights, Madonna sported a knitted, cat-eared hat and a matching black T-shirt that defined feminism as the radical notion that women are people. True to form, she expressed her outrage at the misogynistic rhetoric and xenophobic policies of the newly inaugurated forty-fifth president.

Earlier that month, shed compared the election to a horror show. I wake up and I go, Wait a second. Donald Trump is the president. Its not a bad dream. It really happened. Its like being stuck in a nightmare.

On January 21, 2017, Madonna spoke out for womens rights-and against President Donald Trump-at the Womens March on Washington,

The profanity she aimed at detractors was a point of contention with Trump supporters as was her admission of revenge fantasies. Yes, Im angry, she said. Yes, I have thought an awful lot of blowing up the White House, but I know that this wont change anything. We cannot fall into despair

Her remarks unleashed criticism and calls by conservatives to investigate her perceived threats. President Trump admonished her as a disgrace to the country. Honestly, shes disgusting, Trump told Fox News. I think she hurt herself badly. I think she hurt that whole cause

Madonna was quick to debunk claims shed advocated for violence. I spoke in metaphor, she explained, and I shared two ways of looking at thingsone was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger. I know that acting out of anger doesnt solve anything. The only way to change things for the better is to do it with love.

Speaking out for positive change in the face of conflicting ideologies, and urging others to do the same, has been a consistent theme in over thirty years of Madonnas life in the spotlight. Her Womens March message had particular echoes to the Get Stupid medley in her Sticky & Sweet Tour during the 2008 election. As clocks ticked, and images of poverty and corruption were projected on the screen, Madonna sang, Get up. Its time. Your life, your world She presented a choice between the misdeeds of dictators and fear-mongers and the hopeful resistance of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa.

The political outcome in 2008 resonated more with Madonnas inclusive values. Barack Obama was declared the winner of the forty-fourth presidential race right before a tour performance. An elated Madonna, nearly in tears, exclaimed the following to her giddy cast and crew members in their backstage, preshow huddle:

Everybody wants change in the world and everybody wants unity. America has slowly degraded itself with all of its greed and consumption and bad leadership and sociopathic behavior. I feel like theres finally light at the end of the tunnel and a chance for us all to come together as one.

Bringing people together to celebrate liberation, equality and diversity is an essential aspect of Madonnas worldview and of her enduring popularity. In another pep talk to the multiracial and gendered cast of her Sticky & Sweet tour, she made these priorities known. Everybody in here is capable of magic. Everybody in here is capable of changing peoples lives, lifting peoples spirits, making people think, pushing peoples buttons, getting people to believe in their dreams. In Madonnas mind, Thats what art is all about

I ronically, the alt-right conservative agenda that Madonna railed against at the Womens March bore a striking resemblance to the period of tax cuts and deregulation ushered in by Republican President Ronald Reagan, which may have enabled Madonnas rapid rise to fame in the early 1980s. Historians referred to the eighties as the go-go decade due to the obsession with personal wealth that it fostered, accompanied by an increase in production and consumer spending.