Witches, Madonnas, and Goddesses

[amadeus@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Susan Harwood)]

After a long, long silence, a chance comparison has brought me back
out of the woodwork.  This thing on Kate and Madonna.  I notice a lot
of the emphasis seems to be on sex and the way it's presented as parts
of these women's images.  This got me thinking.  Here's what's
surfaced so far; it's not about music per se, so I hope no one finds
the subject matter too off base.

And for those who know me, this is not a commercial.  ;-)

Now, if we wanted to split hairs, we could say that in a sense both
women are alike, because both women possess calculated images.  The
differ, of course, is that one woman (guess who) thrives on the media
blitz and big, round tits.  The other-- well, let's say she's more a
mistress of understatement than the Material Girl.  She knows what she
wants people to think about her, but she doesn't bare her breasts when
she wants to cause a stir-- she bares her heart (a more enticing
concept to my mind).

Getting back to Madonna.  So here we have this creature, a sort of
Saint Agnes gone haywire.  Madonna gets where she does because she
comes off as this fallen good girl; the virgin besmirched, if you
will.  Her very name bespeaks the contradiction she presents-- hot
little Virgin Mary, awakened to the pulse between her legs.  Oh, yes.
She sings too.  But Madonna's image is dependent on the fact that,
even though she enjoys what she does, she is bad.  A very Catholic
idea, and her chosen imagery points it up oh so well.

Kate Bush, on the other hand, isn't like that at all.  Yes, Kate is
sexy.  Yes, the early songs are explicit. But Madonna has discovered
her sexuality (and what it gets her) by rebelling against everything
around her.  Kate is like a goddess, in the truly pagan sense of the
word.  Her sexuality is indeed more than the pulse between her legs;
it is the pulse of her very being.  And she can go from the nymph in
TKI to the powerfully sexy woman in TD and HoL to the incredibly
erotic creature in TSW because she doesn't have to thrust that sex
forward to say who she wants you to think she is.  Kate is beyond such
childish displays, because what she does, nay, what she is, is beyond
such medieval concepts as good and bad.  That includes her life's work
(music; I think Madonna's life's work is publicity).

You could say that one wears a mantle of erotica, while the other
flashes a shroud of blatant sex trimmed with pornography.

That's enough rambling for now... does this make sense?  Would this
sound like a valid idea?  I'm interested in what other people think;
send email if you think it's a better forum for it.  And, by the way,
this whole train of thought kicked off in my head because of Andreas
calling Madonna a witch.  Indeed, as if she deserved such an honor.

:-)



-----Susan L. Cecelia Harwood--------------------------------*<:-)-------------
"The whims that we're weeping for our parents would be beaten for."--Kate Bush
----------amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu---------The University of Texas @Austin---