Is Kim Kardashian or Madonna more like Martin Luther King?
August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He gave this same speech many times before, but something was different that day. The media coverage and the size of the crowd were one of the largest MLK ever had the opportunity to address. That day and that speech gave visibility to the civil rights movement that it did not have the day before. That day changed everything.
The oppression black Americans suffered since the degradation of their ‘immigration’ (yeah, there isn’t an eloquent word for what I’m saying) to America is almost unimaginable to someone under 30 years of age. Different water fountains, bathrooms, and restaurants where service was refused because you were the wrong color sounds like getting around with a horse-drawn carriage to a 28-year-old.
When you think about 1963, you think about JFK’s murder, maybe the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, but not the civil rights movement. That’s because August 28, 1963, was the FLASHPOINT for the movement.
Prior to that day, everyone knew what was happening in the south regarding the Jim Crowe laws, but it had just been the status quo. The events of the rest of the 1960s would be a cultural change to America only rivaled by the end of slavery.
Sex sells. Of course, not to women until recently.
Before February 2007, you may have heard of the term “Beefcake” or “Hunks,” terms synonymous with good looking men. In the 1990’s sex sold in tv commercials, but not to women. I thought about putting a bunch of links to commercials from that era, but you can go to youtube if you don’t believe me. I don’t want to get too far off-topic, but a TED talk from March of 2019 (yes, this year) by Sarah Barmak discusses how disconnected men (and most women) are from women’s sexuality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkB4gG8ke7Q
That Ted talk discusses how medical anatomy textbooks don’t have accurate diagrams of the clitoris, and as recently as the 20th-century fathers in some western countries were ADVISED to “remove the unnecessary growth.” To this day, a % of Egyptian girls have the procedure known as “female circumcision” imposed upon their bodies. Again, that TED TALK was from 6 months ago, not 2008.
It can’t be overstated how draconian societal views are towards women and sex. So much so, that it’s hard to remember the conventional way of thinking from 10 years ago. Pretend today were ten years to the day after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, and you witnessed it in person. You’d look back honored to have seen history. However, everyone on the beach that day’s first thought was most likely, “What are those idiots doing?”.
Two of the biggest acts in entertainment today (Cardi B and Iggy Azalea) openly discuss (usually without a lot of details) their time in, associated with the sex industry prior to their rise in the entertainment biz. But until recently, no way in hell this would fly. The media would have gone crazy.
You think of Vanessa Williams as a beautiful actress who has had a successful career. But at 21, in 1984 she was stripped of her Miss America title when PENTHOUSE mag published naked pictures so benign (by today’s standards), they could almost make it past Instagram censors today. It was two years before Redd Foxx brought her on his show as a guest star, which led to Love Boat and TJ Hooker episodes. By the way, all were ABC shows. I have never spoken to her about it, but I bet those two years required a fortitude that is unimaginable to most of us. She went from Miss America to a Leper overnight.
In the early 90’s Madonna was huge. I really can’t stress enough the stature she had achieved. The math on how big a star she was could be described as, Taylor Swift + Lady Gaga = Madonna. Girls dressed like her, she had a small role in a film and ended up being advertised above title, her first tour was sold out in 1 day. The entire thing. She was really more phenomenon than artist. Then scandal. And it was a big fucking deal.
Some pictures that register as “nude” surfaced. She took them before she found hair bleach or a microphone and purchased by an adult magazine were be published in 1985. With every 14-year-old girl dressing and acting like their Goddess, it complicated things for mothers and schools.
Madonna didn’t have a presser to apologize, she took a minute. Now, I guarantee she was told to renounce her actions, apologise, admit she sinned or whatever the hell act of contrition people thought would clean it up. I promise this was very difficult for her to say “no” to. But she did.
A few years go by and she decided to take control of her image. She called rapper Big Daddy Kane and went into the backyard with a camera. She didn’t push the envelope, she pissed on it, covered it in napalm, and threw a grenade at it. The best part, a couple of years later, she sold a (sealed in mylar with a metal cover) book in bookstores for $50 a copy. It was an outrageous price. She made the world consume it as “art” and not “porn.” That move also has made the scandal of the ’80s into an afterthought.
From Wikipedia
Sex is a 1992 coffee table book written by American singer Madonna, with photography by Steven Meisel Studio and Fabien Baron. It was edited by Glenn O’Brien and published by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway. The book features adult content including softcore pornography and simulations of sexual acts including sadomasochism.
Madonna developed Sex after Judith Regan of Simon & Schuster publishers suggested a book of erotic photographs. She wrote it as a character named “Mistress Dita”, inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It was influenced by punk rock and fashion figures including Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. The photos were shot in early 1992 in New York City and Miami, in locations including hotels, burlesque theaters, and city streets. The book includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, and socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The cover is made of aluminium, spiral bound and wrapped in a Mylarsheet.
Sex attracted extensive media attention and controversy. Madonna’s publishers were apprehensive about the release and the book’s commercial potential. Released on October 21, 1992, the day after Madonna’s fifth studio album Erotica, it sold over 150,000 copies on its first day, and topped the New York Times Best Seller list. It remains the fastest-selling coffee table book. Erotica was also packaged with the book.
Though it initially received negative reviews from fans and critics, who felt Madonna had “gone too far”, later reviews have been more positive, with academics deeming it a defining phase in Madonna’s career. Sex is noted for its impact on Madonna’s career and is considered a bold post-feminist work. It has become one of the most sought-after out-of-print books.
As a friend of mine once said, “sometimes the only way out is to blow things up”.
Since the album entitled EROTICA in 1992 Madonna has sold approx 80 million albums. Not sold $80m in sales, 80 million units.
But Madonna was a bad girl. Her audience aged into the risque book, otherwise, it wouldn’t have worked. She was still mainstream but wasn’t accepted until 2012 when the Super Bowl had her do the halftime show. Think about it.
All of this evolution leads me to when culture shifted. I’m not comparing Madonna to Rosa Parks, all though Rosa’s bravado is legendary. It was too massive to be that influential. She was already iconic and you have to remember there were years between her book and the Penthouse pics. She did something more significant than anyone would have thought she would, a statement, but Madonna was an island. She wasn’t a woman; she was the biggest star in the world.
That “Thing”
If you take a closer look, the flashpoint seems to be 2007. And what happened in 2007 you ask? Vived released the Kim Kardashian and Ray-J sex tape. Timing of the tape (made in 2003) coincided with her new show for Seacrest and ENetwork, KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS. A fake lawsuit was filed to help sell the tape as putting out videos of women having sex to promote themselves wasn’t exactly a thing yet. Rumor has it that Kris (mommy) edited the tape herself. There is also a rumor she edited out Ray-J peeing on her. Yet another rumor is they did reshoots. Who knows, who cares?
I know what you are thinking… “Paris’ tape predated Kim’s.” Correct, but that tape was mostly her asshole ex-BF’s doing. I can’t remember how that happened exactly, but Paris was upset at first. Then she became a star and was a proponent of all this. But at first, she was not into it. The night vision absurd DVD of Paris and her BF (honestly, you could convinced me it was two raccoons) with her BF narrating, was at best terrible by any standards.
But the real difference is Paris was upset, then embraced it once she saw the upside. Another rumor — Paris pushed Kim to take the ‘porn plunge.’
January 2007, Kim was further down the depth chart than Nicole Ritchie. Paris was a star. The rest of her entourage was not. But March 21st, that all changed. March 20 Kim Kardashian was “OJ’s lawyer’s daughter, who was friends with Paris.” And almost immediately rumors that it wasn’t leaked, blew up. That all the lawsuit hoopla was BS. In fact, out of the gate it didn’t look like the smart play. At the time, they kinda looked like idiots to be honest.
At that time we were ending the era of “Everyone gets a show”. With all time tirefires like MR. PERSONALITY, A show where women met men in Luche Libre maskes in an effort to hook up based a 100% personality hosted by Monica Lewinsky (hasn’t this poor woman suffered enough?). BOY MEETS BOY, a series where a gay man dates from a pool of 15 guys except a couple aren’t gay. At the end of the series if the guy picks a gay man they split a million, but if fooled by one of the planted straight guys, he gets the million.
By the time Kim got her show, audiences were sick of the self-aggrandizing programming. E wasn’t the hot network. The mid summer launch was not must watch tv. I remember hearing about the show and laughing.
But it wasn’t 1985, nor was it the 1990’s. One thing had definitely changed, the internet showing every naked picture of every person ever taken, desensitized the generation who now had 10–14-year-old daughters. These were the children of the MADONNA CLONES. They remembered when their Goddess was momentarily stolen from them and how she reacted to it. She owned it. Their parents wouldn’t have let them watch the show about the pornstar, but by god, she was going to support their daughter and allow them to ‘make their own decisions’. So the core audience (I don’t think ENetwork even expected pre-teen girls to be the core audience) as young as they were became the new Madonna Clones. The difference was, instead of being yelled and threatened by their parents over watching “filth,” etc., they were empowered.
If nothing else, I hope my little thesis offers some food for thought.
