She probably couldn’t care less about the Right Wing social media discourse…
It’s never been easy to be Madonna. The immense fame, the continual scrutiny, the weight of expectation that her own success brings. Somehow, though, she manages it. The icon’s current Celebration Tour is one of her most potent live moments, a chapter-by-chapter dissection of her life. At times moving, at others euphoric, it more than lives up to its title. It’s a celebration, after all.
Yet it’s not without controversy. Continually out there pushing the boundaries, Madonna isn’t playing it safe. The show is huge – more than two hours, multiple outfit changes, a colossal array of dancers, and members of her own family onstage. It is, to put it lightly, a lot.
Overnight, an out-of-context video went viral on conservative social media. Clipped from her performance of 90s mega-smash ‘Ray Of Light’, it showed Madonna in a silver outfit, holding on to a support bar.
Somehow, this has triggered a huge range of people. Hard Right pundits. Trump supporters. Bizarre religious types. The comments are scarcely worthy of trolls, a cavalcade of sexism, puerile misanthropy, tawdry chauvinism, and tedious masculinity. We’re not going to link to them – you can find it yourself.
The conversation – if it can even be called that – is devoid of context. Having seen the show, Clash can affirm that Madonna is performing ‘Ray Of Light’ in a moving box that zips around the arena – it’s a high-energy, high-octane, breathlessly entertaining perform. Of course she needs some form of safety rail – she’s about to be thrown sixty feet into the air.
Except the pundits, the online nay-sayers have no time for that. Curiously, one voice in defence of Madonna is Chuck D, who writes: “Ageism sometimes gets like racism both ways if you let it. For anyone over 50 the rule is either you do the songs or the songs do you.”
