Word: madonna
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Academics ought to have a longer shelf life than pop stars. So maybe Madonna wasn't such a swell role model for Camille Paglia, a humanities professor at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. Sexual Personae, a rambunctious survey of gender identities published in 1990, made Paglia into feminism's Material Girl. In a whiny time that sanctified women as victims, she celebrated woman's erotic and emotional majesty. Just like that, she was the hot intellectual starlet...
Alas, she loved notoriety even more than it loved her. The huffy reception being given Vamps & Tramps (Vintage; 532 pages; $15), her paperback volume of new and recent essays, journalism, TV interviews and effluvia, suggests that Paglia is in her 16th minute of fame -- like Madonna at her current ebb with an exasperated public. This is a shame, since it discounts Paglia's rangy, roguish intelligence and genius for mischiefmaking...
Swing's first section sells itself a "guide to the hipper things in life." It contains short briefs on current yuppie trends: indoor rock climbing, coffee houses with computer ports, poetry slams, cigars for women as smoked by Madonna, which bars are "hot" in New York this month and what to drink when you go to them. One column contains advice on how to arrange antiques in your dilapidated apartment; another presents an inquiry on who should pay the check...
...Music: Madonna shows a softer side...
...when Madonna released her dirty picture book, Sex, she seemed to be moving into self-destruct mode, finishing up her time in the spotlight as a parody of herself. The eroticism she hints at on Bedtime Stories is actually sexier than that of her more wanton songs and videos. Even if a more subdued Madonna is just another pose, it may help her win some of the respect she actually deserves. She is not a great singer, her songs are derivative, her public persona is tawdry. But she can make pretty good records. That's what her dirty little secret...