Her Madge-jesty...

(We know who wears the pants in New Directions.)

Photo: Glee Images

Tonight the all-Madonna ep of Glee ("The Power of Madonna") finally airs on FOX. I don't know about you, but I am one overexcited diva lover.

I have worshiped Madge pretty much since birth. I have seen her in concert two times - and The Immaculate Collection collection is the soundtrack to pretty much every sorta-long-distance drive I take.  I even wrote an essay on the holy grail of girl pop for one of my classes this semester.

In my paper, I spoke about three songs (all of which are getting the Glee treatment tonight!) - "Like a Virgin", "Express Yourself" and "What It Feels Like For a Girl" - and how they exemplify her gender-bending persona. "The Power of Madonna", on the other hand, has Mr. Shue teaching the Glee boys the important and strength of the group's girls - via The Queen of Pop's sass-tastic songbook. I guess great minds really do think alike.

I've attached a sample of my extremely fangirly essay below. The section covers the gender confused portrayal of her hit, "Express Yourself"from her Blond Ambition Tour. I figured it would only be suiting (there's a pun there, wait) because the girls will be adopting Madge's corset-pantsuit combo from the tour tonight (see above).

Let me know what you think! (Of the episode and my essay.)

"...Madonna’s love of gender bending is most prominent in her documentary, Truth or Dare, which followed the on-stage and behind the scene antics of her Blond Ambition concert tour. In a review of the 1991 film, Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman says the various performances from the tour “reveal the roots of [Madonna’s] style” as they show that she embodies both female stereotypes (the “Good Catholic Girl”) and male personality traits (aggression and overt sexuality) simultaneously. The section of the concert footage that Gleiberman believes best expresses these consciously conflicting personas is her gender ambiguous take on her hit song “Express Yourself”.


Gleiberman calls this particular performance Madonna’s “credo” as it celebrates expressing one's beliefs in “sex, music [and] life”, even if they lie beyond the norms of  society. Madonna consciously expresses her strong feelings towards gender equality during the act by playing with both masculine and feminine stereotypes, particularly in terms of costuming. Throughout the song, Madonna wears a tailored suit and holds a spectacle up to her eye. This extremely masculine outfit is offset by her girly platinum blonde curls and a gold-coloured bra, which she hides under her business attire until the second verse. Even when she is fully suited up, she has a touch of femininity peaking out. During the first verse, a garter belt can be seen hanging out from the side of her trousers.


Madonna’s vocals are similarly gender confused during the performance as they waver back and forth between girlish and high pitched on the verses to deep and drag queen-esque on the choruses. The lyrics seem more literal and stereotypical as they repeatedly refer to a woman needing a man’s love to help her achieve happiness and self-worth (she says making him express himself will help you “respect yourself”).  However, Madonna also takes a feminist slant in many of the song’s lyrical sections, such as the second verse where she states that women should not settle for “second best” when it comes to their boyfriends or husbands and that they can “do much better on [their] own." By constantly encouraging her female fans to step out of the typical, subservient girlfriend/housewife role, Madonna is suggesting that gender roles and behaviors are more hypothetical than concrete and are meant to be bent shaped as men and women see fit.


Madonna further illustrates her strong sense of gender equality by consciously inserting masculine dance moves and gestures into the performance. Throughout “Express Yourself”, she and three similarly androgynous female dancers physically dominate the male performers using choreographed acts of violence and sexual assertiveness. She frequently steps on the topless, slave-like men and or pushes them to the floor. In one particularly subversive section, she pulls up one of the male dancers with one hand as she sings, “What you need is a big strong hand/To lift you to your higher ground."  With this subtle move, she reverses the literal meaning of the words (the hand, originally belonging to a man) and shows that women can also wear the pinstripe pants in a relationship, and in life."

 Mood Music: "Like a Prayer" by the Glee Cast