Blonde ambition : Madonna redefinerer de feminine

Abstract

Madonna has been one of popularcultures most sentral icons in the 80 and 90's. In this thesis I ask the question whether Madonna challenges popularcultures general definition of "the feminine". The discussion is based on three analyses of some of Madonnas most famous videos, Like a Virgin from 1984, Express Yourself from 1989 and Vouge from 1990. Sentral to my discussion is the way Madonna deliberately "acts out" several stereotypical gender-roles and cliches in a way that exposes the cultural constructedness of these well known stereotypes. The analyses will also show that Madonna redifines the traditional genderhierarchy and subject/object positions that still dominates much of popular culture. Further, this thesis will discuss the the fact that Madonna is firmly rooted in the musicvideo-genre and that this clearly makes Madonna a part of a postmodern aestetics. This is a paradigm that has had a lot of influence on the way she expresses herself artisticly. Finaly, Madonnas deconstructive gender-play makes her a part of a modern, postfeminist aestetic that stesses the performative and theatrical element in western cultures various forms of sexuality and gender-identities.