First published in German by: https://jungefreiheit.de/debatte/kommentar/2023/madonna-und-hollywood/
No religion can be dragged through the mud as blatantly and without consequences as Christianity. It has become almost "en vogue" to deconstruct the faith of the "old white man", to make it contemptible or to cancel it outright. Thus, the agenda against the world's most widespread religious belief has long since found its way into popular culture and so onto TV screens, catwalks or art. The most recent example is Madonna's photo spread in the well-known US magazine Vanity Fair.
She is currently posing as her namesake, the historical figure of the Mother of God, on the cover of the lifestyle magazine. Wrapped in several sumptuous veils, with Photoshop tears flowing down her cheeks. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is emblazoned in front of her; impaled by seven rapiers. In Catholicism, the burning heart symbolises the love of Jesus Christ. The real obscene motifs, however, are displayed in the magazine contents. Drinking, eating, lusting are all part of a scene that is supposed to represent the Last Supper.
Instead of the disciples, young women sit there, eagerly tearing the food from the plates. They nestle together, drop their wrappings and give themselves over to pleasure. In their midst: Madonna with a devilishly penetrating gaze. As an evil Jesus version, she shares bread with her hands raised above her head as if she were celebrating a ritual instead of the Last Supper. In variations of the motif, she caresses her crowned female disciples or lifts herself above them with outstretched arms in prayer. So far, so irritating. The photo series is rounded off by the ultimate taboo: dead children. At least an allusion to such.
For example, Madonna wears a dress covered all over with baby doll heads and their severed limbs. On her abdomen, several bones form a womb from which several children spring. Scattered around the room are also heads, arms and torsos of dolls, lying around seemingly at random. Behind Madonna dances none other than the horned Satan in red robes, while a white figure with a baby in its arms almost disappears into the background.
Balenciaga and the fetish teddies
Less than two months ago, after a massive shitstorm the fashion company Balenciaga had to withdraw an advertising campaign showing children with fetish teddy bears. Alarmed users looked at the images very closely and discovered in the background of another motif a US court document of a case from the 2000s, in which it had been negotiated whether virtual child pornography counts as free speech. Since separate sets are created for the fashion industry's expensive photo shoots, Balenciaga was at a loss to explain who had placed the document in the picture and why?
It didn't help that in the social media attention was drawn to more and more irritating details of the motif, such as an illustrated book by an artist who likes to paint naked children and occult rituals, lying on the table. There was already a whiff of sulphur in the air during the Balenciaga scandal. It is now increasingly the case.
Madonna - the "Queen of Provocation"
You don't have to be a bourgeois or a Bible-thumping churchgoer to see the grotesqueness behind Madonna's photo spread. What would have happened if she had snubbed Islam or Judaism in such a way? While tender-hearted "woke" usually hold a protective hand over every other religious community or minority, Christianity is a punching bag that can be hit again and again with impunity.
For example, actress Megan Fox presented herself on Halloween with rapper Machine Gun Kelly as a duo of priest and whore. Wearing a latex costume and fishnet tights, she knelt before him in a sexually explicit manner and had a host placed in her mouth with her tongue out. Adidas most recently had a 22-year-old influencer promote a bikini with the words "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" on both breasts and panties, and German publicist and presenter Riccardo Simonetti adorned the cover of the Berlin homosexual magazine “Siegessäule” last year dressed as a transsexual Virgin Mary.
Madonna, as the "Queen of Pop", has of course been known since her beginnings to play with Christian symbolism and to provoke. "Like a Virgin" or "Like a Prayer" are among her most famous titles. What was sexually charged but still teasingly charming back then has since escalated into the degenerate. Pentagrams, demons, Satan, blood rituals are now increasingly normalised as completely unproblematic artistic avant-gardism in popular culture.
Occultism and hypersexualisation
When, for example, singer Lana Del Rey claims to have practised black magic against former US President Donald Trump, this may sound quite amusing. But if you take a more serious look at the elites in Hollywood, your blood will freeze in your veins. An influential figure like Lotta Volkova, one of the fashion industry's hottest stylists, openly posts her penchant for occultism and hypersexualisation of children.
The Instagram channel of the Russian, who has worked for Balenciaga among others in the past, is one dark cloud of pentagrams, images of demons, bedrooms resembling a bloody slaughterhouse and tied-up children. After outrage, actress Jamie Lee Curtis only last week hastily deleted a photo showing a painting of a naked child in a suitcase in the background of her home. The Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović, highly esteemed by the Hollywood celebrity clique, also likes things classic: snakes, messages smeared on a wall in blood, and bloody severed antlers are part of her personal style.
One gets the feeling of having stumbled into a bad imitation of "Eyes Wide Shut". Unlike Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, however, large Hollywood milieus are increasingly openly living out their alliance with the occult. Outrage about this remains largely absent. Much of society, which has been made mentally docile by consumerism, the media and the like, is in any case too jaded to grasp the obvious. Nor do they want to, as appeasement along the lines of "nothing is connected to nothing" and "it's only art" shows.
On Instagram, Madonna's photo spread did earn her some angry reactions. Many users, on the other hand, exacerbated the already absurd by posting heartfelt wishes such as "Burn me on the cross" under the post. Making a mockery of Christianity, however, is not the only accusation with which the former "Queen of Pop" is confronted.
Another scandal is brewing
Currently, a scandal seems to be brewing around her African-based children's charity Raising Malawi. According to the Malawian news portal Nyasa Times, the non-profit organisation Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) has called on the president of the East African state of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, to launch an investigation against Madonna's supposedly charitable organisation. Children are said to have been deliberately placed with homosexuals and transsexuals. There are also accusations of child trafficking.
The 64-year-old has herself adopted four children from Malawi. In the past, her handling of the matter has repeatedly brought her criticism for wanting to present herself as a champion of anti-racism, but for living the opposite of this morality. Pictures of her having her feet massaged by her black daughters created a less than respectful image for many users. Meanwhile, her dark-skinned son walks the catwalks of the world as a genderfluid model with the encouragement of his adoptive mother.
Madonna's questionable convictions have not escaped the attention of the concerned EWF. As early as 1992, she had written a book entitled "SEX", which proved the extent of her abnormal preferences, including brutal, masochistic sex acts. Madonna is just one example that testifies to the "dark side" of Hollywood. Everything that once went on behind the curtain as sacrilege is now gradually emerging into the open as respectable.
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