Dethroning Madonna

“Like a virgin, oh, touched for the very first time.
Like a virgin, when your hearts beats next to mine.”


Needless to say Madonna’s 1984 ‘Like a Virgin’ music video turned many heads world wide.

Although Madonna says she doesn’t want to be remembered by the song Like a Virgin, her music video left a long lasting impression, a comical one at that.

In Susan Sontags Notes on “Camp,” she says “the whole point of camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious.”

Well, Madonna did just that. As she dances stripper like on the small boat in Italy; her legs spread as she rolls around on the bow of the boat doesn’t seem so serious and actually pretty ironic to me.

Her song was a hit. That catchy tune that was played on every radio station, it just sticks in your head. But let’s be honest here, as Madonna seems so serious it was very comical. Her lyrics say “I made it through the wilderness,” okay… but a lion randomly roaming around with her? I can maybe see the resemblance, wilderness and lions… but then her “lover” wears a lion mask. I’m not really sure I understand what relation is between the two. I quote Sontag, “many examples of camp are things which, from a ‘serious’ point of view, are either bad art or kitsch.” Well Madonna, hate to break it to ya, but this music video gives off a love hate relationship. You just love to hate it.

For Madonna’s Like a Virgin music video to be taken seriously is less unlikely. As Sontag says “the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” Unnatural and exaggerated pretty much describes Madonna’s style perfectly. The best part about her music, performances, and videos is that she always herself. She has to go over and beyond anyone else.

Even though most people found Madonna’s music videos humorous, there were those few people who looked beyond the video and understood the lyrics more than anyone else. Those people or as Sontag explains it are the homosexuals. They have “Camp taste.” Sontag believes that homosexuals invented camp. And… in every sense I can believe this. Homosexuals have nothing to judge because they are being judged themselves. “Camp taste is, above all, a mode of enjoyment, or appreciation – not judgment.”

What can you say, gays love Madonna. Gays love human nature, they live for the moment. Camp loves human nature. “It relishes, rather than judges.” Madonna’s music is youthful, it’s playful. You can’t take her music video serious. Homosexuals live off of her music for the desire to remain youthful.

Like a Virgin will live on in our world and only Madonna will know the meaning behind her music, and how she wanted to portray her music. Almost anything can be “campy,” or have “campy taste.” It’s all within the eye of the beholder.