Gender on Gender.

Madonna. Enough said...well not quite enough. There are actually great bonds we must reveal within this particular work of hers. It starts out with a couple of people dressed in black leather not really revealing either ones sex. Both men and women have their hair slicked back and are wearing unisex clothes that protest a masculine rather than feminine aura. As we get deeper into the video, Madonna’s character takes on a more feminine role as she lets her hair loose and strips down to leather intimates, revealing that the main character is in fact a woman.

What message do viewers gain from this video? Is the artist depicting a strong and willful woman? Or is she suggesting that women are set back in society by prancing around in tight black outfits and allowing men to tie her up in her videos? Since we are in the depths of gender studies and feminism I could not help but argue that this video/song is an ode to women all over the world. The main character stands up for her self and does not allow anyone to stand in her way in order to get what she wants. She speaks her mind, and as the song states, is not sorry for it.

Yes, it is strange but it is also strange that century after century women have been considered the subordinate sex. Although times are changing, and here in the United States we are very slowly moving closer to the idea of equality between sexes, this concept of the subordinate sex still exists. In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir, released the idea of “the one” and “the other” in her work entitled The Second Sex. De Beauvoir argues that men and women are both human beings of the same nature yet for some reason the woman has always been perceived as “the other” and the man has been perceived as “the one.” It is a form of a master slave relationship that has been conjured up from the beginning of time by non other than the male sex. De Beauvoir suggests that “humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being.” She argues that men have been writing the history of women for as long as women have allowed them too. It is possible for women to rise up and take their stance in the world but if they do not strive to achieve this as a whole then their power will stay where it has been lobbying for years to come.

Madonna’s stance of independence in this song falls right into the lap of De Beauvoir, as she refuses to mesh her thoughts with that of another and stands firmly behind her own suggesting “ I’m not your bitch don’t hang your shit on me” (Madonna).

This song also falls into Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality. Not only is a woman expressing her mind but she dares to speak about sex openly and does not apologize for her sexuality claiming “I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex” (Madonna). Foucault suggests that in the past, specifically around the 18th century, sex was censored and instead transferred into discourse in order to speak of it (Foucault 1504). It became a scientific disciplinary as the English government took it upon themselves to take charge of the scandalous activity labeling citizens as perverts and using religious confession as a way to discipline sexual acts (Foucault 1508). Madonna’s acceptance of sex and the discussion of it definitely embodies Foucault’s work as they both conclude that it is really not that big of a deal as it is only human nature.
Works Cited:

De Beauvoir, Simone. “The Second Sex: Introduction Woman as other.” Marxist.org.10 August 2010. Web.

Foucault, Michel. "The History of Sexuality." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton Company, Inc: New York, 2010. 1502-1519. Print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS6FCoq349o