page_title: Cultural impact of Madonna
section_title: Contradictory perspective
hierarchical_section_title: Cultural impact of Madonna / Contradictory perspective
caption_attribution_description: A New Yorker protests Madonna adopting David Banda on Halloween.Halloween-Parade feat. Madonna-Protest
context_page_description: Since the beginning of her career in the early 1980s, American singer and songwriter Madonna has had a social-cultural impact on the world through her recordings, attitude, clothing and lifestyle. Called the "Queen of Pop", Madonna is labeled by international authors as the greatest woman in music, as well as the most influential and iconic female recording artist of all time.
  A global cultural icon, Madonna has built a legacy that goes beyond music and has been studied by sociologists, historians and other social scientists. Her impact is often compared with that of the Beatles and Elvis Presley; they are the best selling acts of all time in the general, solo male and female category respectively. Madonna is a key figure in popular music; critics have retrospectively credited her presence, success and contributions with paving the way for every female artist and changing forever the music scene for women in the music history, as well as for today's pop stars. Even reviews of her work have served as a roadmap for scrutinizing women at each stage in their music career.
context_section_description: Professors in American Icons noted that she was not only an omnipresent figure but a polarizing one. For example, in 1993, she was the subject of the I Hate Madonna Handbook and the following year the inspirations for I Dream of Madonna. Lynn Spigel noted that Madonna is a producer of cultural ambiguity and openness. Rabbi Isaac Karudi —the highest authority of the Orthodox Kabbalah— described her as a "depraved cultural icon". Social critic and critical theorist, Stuart Sim noted that "Madonna now attained the status of cultural icon, she is however, an extremely problematic one, as her delight in simultaneously evoking and transgressing cultural stereotypes of feminity makes her exceedingly difficult to categorize; depending on one's point of view". Cultural critic Fausto Rivera Yánez from El Telégrafo said that "Madonna has labeling usurper, since much of its aesthetic and musical approach draws on religious imagery of black cultures, discourses of sexual diversity and circumstantial geopolitical contexts". Maureen Orth explain her the contradiction as a cultural and social impact:
  "Madonna’s celebrity is unique in that it seems to depend as much on repugnance as on acceptance. Her fame frame, unlike that of most other mega-stars, rests very much on people who love to hate her—while monitoring her every move—and on others who hate to love her, as well as on the traditional adoring fans. Perhaps it’s not surprising that even academics are doing a brisk trade in 'Madonna-ology'.
  American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times Michiko Kakutani, felt that Madonna is incredibly popular. Or: "Clearly, Madonna is not universally loved." Or: "The politics of sex and gender representations as they relate to identity has not been lost on Madonna." Authors in Representing gender in cultures (2004) noted that "Madonna has been consistently denied a status of a 'real' musician and even accused of using, in a vampire-like way, fashionable musicians to update her sound".
  During her career, Madonna attracted the attention of family organizations, feminist "anti-porn" and religious groups worldwide with boycott and protests. Professor Bruce David Forbes author of Religion and Popular Culture in America (2005) felt that "some of the most important and interesting texts in recent American culture which have overlapping concerns with liberation theologies are by Madonna". Karen Fredericks from socialist newspaper Green Left Weekly questioned if does the "Madonna phenomenon" advance the cause of women's liberation within Western societies? she said that clearly, there's no point going to Madonna for help. She asserted that the artist is a commodity in a capitalist market which has been influenced, at least to some extent, by the demands of the women's movement. Sociologist John Shepherd wrote that Madonna's cultural practices highlight the sadly continuing social realities of dominance and subordination. In 1988, one Italian sculptor planned a statue of Madonna in Pacentro, where are from her paternal grandparents, who said "Madonna is a symbol of our children and represents a better world in the year 2000". The then mayor of the city declared: "it is absolutely untrue that the city administration of Pacentro is willing to host the statue to the singer Madonna as some maintain".
  Academic Audra Gaugler from Lehigh University advocated for Madonna, wrote that "she has faced much criticism throughout her career, but much of it is unjust. Instead of Madonna's actions eliciting criticism, they should elicit praise because she radically tries to change society by blurring the boundaries that separate different groups of people in society and she urges all people to gain power in their lives and lift themselves out of subordinate positions. Madonna blurs the boundaries that exist in society and separate people in society in two distinct ways". She noted that there exists a large band of critics that at first praised her, but then became disillusioned with her as she became more and more controversial.
caption: A New Yorker protests Madonna adopting children from Africa on Halloween.
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