Material girl: empowers or minimizes women?

[EgoRod 5,430]

2 hours ago, proxy said:

This song is sarcastic, it shouldn't be taken seriously. 

But it doesn't means it has a meaning itself. You can be sarcastic and have some depth. In fact sarcasm in music has been used to showcase serious issues.

Madonna is a woman and she will be talking from her experience, it doesn't means it's a feminist activist with each song.

[Aiwa08 16,190]

1 hour ago, EgoRod said:

It was about HIV/AIDS victims in the latino community

https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/madonna-like-a-prayer/

"the powerful “Spanish Eyes” seemingly and elegantly conflated the then-taboo issue of AIDS with gang violence."

So it's just an interpretation of the song. Nothing more. No statement from Madonna herself. 

[EgoRod 5,430]

34 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

So it's just an interpretation of the song. Nothing more. No statement from Madonna herself. 

As I said before I don't think there are many statements from Madonna that hold up with the years either.

[RUADJAI 14,906]

Off topic, but going to listen to the song in Apple Music... the 2001 Remaster skips at the :30 second mark. Is it like that everywhere??

[RUADJAI 14,906]

Honestly, I'm gonna be honest, I rolled my eyes when I read the title of this thread. But upon thinking about it for a minute I think there is more going on than what is on the surface. As far as empowerment, it implies the female is in control ("I don't let them play" "Have to let them be") It's her choice. I think one could also say it's a response to men objectifying women. This is a way that a woman can objectify a man. She obviously can't do it sexually as the man would probably welcome any sort of sexual attention. (Ive also seen examples of people trying to make a point by sexually objectifying men by a woman and it didn't really work) So how else can you do it? Make their worth directly related to how successful they are. 

 

But in all honesty it was written by two men, so it probably wasn't written to be that deep from a female's point of view. They were probably just excited they came up with a few double entendres.  (Raise my interest, Proper credit)

[DrunkBySix 547]

"Material Girl" is a fun, cheeky pop song. It neither empowers nor minimizes women. Lighten up. 

[artlover 3,929]

I think it tells more about a woman trying to tell ironically that she's not a gold digger. It's implicit from its own video references. Have you guys not seen the film?

[artlover 3,929]

I think your theory applies much more to Cyndi's hit. Just saying. 

[chaosmen1984mk 793]

22 hours ago, The First Citizen said:

I do not really see how this song is about empowerment one way or another. Just because Madonna happens to be enacting a piece of satire as a woman who was heavily inspired by Marilyn Monroe does not mean we should read into this song  that much. Even if the lyrics by themselves lead us to believe the song is about a materialistic and shallow girl, is that a bad thing? So I would say the song neither empowers nor minimizes women as a whole because it is describing one particular girl who you might think was materialistic if you did not watch the video.

More than describing the story of a single girl, it is narrating a real situation that happened, happens and will always happen in the world: women who see in the rich man the opportunity to achieve a life full of comforts and without having to work. Maybe that reality was something taboo in the 80s (I don't know because I'm not from that time but I imagine it was because in those times they were scandalized by everything), that's why they used satire to talk about that topic and the rhythm used in the song helped a lot for it.

A theme that is still valid to this day (in fact now more and more men are going after rich women and we see it in the current popularity of the terms "sugar daddy" or "sugar mommy"). And about the video, by altering the original meaning of the song, I don't take it into account when formulating the original question of the post.

[LikeAMelody 728]

I do not think it empowers nor minimize women. I think it's more of an observation of seeking material items to replace the feeling of being unloved and of someone who believes they can buy love from someone else. 

It's an observation of the choices made by people living in a society where their importance is based on a checklist of "worthiness" rather than what makes them unique and lovable. 

In the Blond Ambition tour performance especially the seriousness of being a "Material Girl" is mocked a bit but revels in the fact that money buys you power or the appearance of it in not needing anyone when you feel unloved. 

 

 

[Blue Jean 15,125]

I don't think the song is that deep. It's a woman singing about how she wants a man who is smart with his money. She doesn't want to date a broke loser. In the end she is the one that becomes rich and powerful (this song came out at a turning point when this was becoming more of a reality.)

Even today the sentiment still rings true especially when looking to provide for a family. The only difference is today things are so expensive most people will prefer 2 incomes when raising a family. So men will be looking for women that are smart with money also.

[cake 320]

Material Girl is a product of its time.1980s were all about yuppie culture, consumerism, ambition, greed.. Madonna was very much part of that movement. There was no sarcasm or hidden meaning in pop back then. Material Girl is a perfect anthem for the 80s. I love both the song and the video. Mary Lambert very wisely showed a more human side of Madonna in the end. She's a good girl after all!

[poodle 258]

I still stand by my opinion that the protagonist is a high class escort, judging by the lyrics and considering the decade.

[chaosmen1984mk 793]

On 6/1/2022 at 2:57 AM, Prayer said:

To me that's classic Madonna since day 1:

Presenting a contradiction in a way that she doesn't stand in one corner or the other ("is she a virgin? is she a slut? is she a material girl or only wants love? or both??"), but push your buttons and make you think and hopefully deconstruct some of your own prejudices on the way, while she gets your attention and feeds on that.

She does that PERFECTLY. Genius.

Contradiction that would not have been formed if Madonna had made the music videos for these two songs (Material girl and Like a Virgin) respecting the original message but surely the controversy would have been too much, especially for those times when women were very repressed to express their sexuality or what they wanted to do with their body. That is why I think that the videos for these songs softened the original message and that is where the contradiction is formed because one does not know whether to believe the lyrics of the song or the video that tells us something different. Let us remember that at that moment Madonna began her provocative phase and the controversial plot of both songs was enough and perhaps she did not want to risk too much because it could have been counterproductive. She would have time to do it without fear in the Like a Prayer, Erotica and American Life era.

[chaosmen1984mk 793]

1 hour ago, poodle said:

I still stand by my opinion that the protagonist is a high class escort, judging by the lyrics and considering the decade.

I also thought about that possibility because the lyrics fit with the way of life of those women (especially the final sentence) but I am more convinced by the version that she wanted to empower women by not making them feel guilty for being ambitious and using men to achieve benefits because they also did the same with them using the power of money and everything would be justified because "we live in a material world."

[chaosmen1984mk 793]

19 hours ago, DrunkBySix said:

"Material Girl" is a fun, cheeky pop song. It neither empowers nor minimizes women. Lighten up. 

I think that if it were just a dance pop song it would not generate so much controversy to this day about its real meaning, that is why nobody questions the lyrics of Into the grrove or Holiday because these are danceable songs and where there is no message behind .