Ms. President
"We are an ideal political family, as accessible as Disneyland", said
Maureen Reagan, daughter of Ronald Reagan. This is what America had
experienced in the last decade. All of a sudden a famous actor took the seat of Mr. President. The news surprised America with astonishment, startle, and
sparkle. Even though he was bashed in the early stages, he succeeded to keep his seat for eight years. If Reagan, an actor, could become president, why not a media star like Madonna? Reagan didn't have to be a politician to be President in the eighties. One don't have to be a male to be president in the nineties. Knowing little to stop her ten years of glory and fame, Madonna has more to say. "I have the same goal I've had since I was a girl," she's pleased to say. "I want to rule the world." (Madonna 46)
Madonna Louise Ciccione, known just as Madonna, is now 37. She admits
she's not a great singer, a great dancer, or great actress, yet, she has a potential talent to get people's attention--her records, her videos, her movies, her marriage, her divorce, and her amours, including a joke that she'd had a lesbian relationship with the comedienne Sandra Bernhard. Whether like her or not, the society are interested in her, listen to her, and watch her. Every magazine has put her pictures on the cover except National Geographic. "I'm a revolutionary" she once sighed, "And yes, it's a burden."
The main stream of our popular culture is controlled by post-literate talk-shows, and advertisement of candidates for president takes place on television. In other words, whoever has the most successful impression and image on TV would win in the election. Right before the 1992 election, Bill Clinton played his saxophone on a Alsenio Hall show. America was surprised by his secret talent, and he had won. So would Madonna. Madonna is good at giving people a strong impression on TV! When New York's WNYW-TV announced it would broad cast the entire her video Justify My Love, which even that easy-going MTV rejected, the show's Nielsen rating were the highest in the station's history?60 percent higher than usual for that program. But when viewers were invited to call in and give their opinions about whether Madonna should be banned from TV, 60 percent voted yes. She is able to make people watch her on television because people like to see her, and they waiting her to do something new and amazing.
Importantly, Madonna is an expert in business, in other words, she knows how money react within the society. Like a Virgin, sold eleven million copies; her next album, True Blue, went to seventeen million. In 1991 she became the highest paid woman in the music business through a $60 million contract with Time Warner creating music, movies, videos, and books. "I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want," Madonna once said, "If that makes me a bitch, OK." Here is evidence from her song Material Girl. "If they don't give me proper credit, I just walk away. If they don't raise my interest then I have to let them be 'cause we are living in a material world." She likes cash and she knows how to collect it. In this materialistic country, we need someone who understands and support us. She is our woman!
Madonna is also sensitive for the racial issue in America. Her employees
and dancers on the stage are shown in all colors and ethnic races; blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, and homosexuals. For her, the show is life, the life which mirrors the reality in America. This leaves her an equal-opportunity employer to give people support people who are suffering discrimination in this country. One comment by Bob Dole, one of the powerful candidates for this year's election on MTV, "I don't think homosexual isn't right…and…it is not my thing." Most of politicians are afraid of getting into this issue.
She is not as intellectual as we usually expect for president. Madonna
hasn't graduated from Harvard University, and also, nor has Reagan. "The day
after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret," stated by Reagan in 1988, to the graduating class of Glassboro High School, New Jersey. But so who cares about Madonna's educational history? No one expect president to be perfect, anyway. Getting into reality, she can hire someone with intelligence just as we've seen in the U.S. history. Her vividness in decision making and other politicians' knowledge of governing would make America more successful.
"Madonna is the true feminist. She exposes the Puritanism and suffocating ideology of American feminism…Madonna has taught young women to be fully female and sexual while still exercising total control over their lives. She shows girls how to be attractive, sensual, energetic, ambitious, aggressive, and funny? all at the same time" (Paglia 51). Women have been fighting to gain their rights in the society for over thirty years. They have been stereotyped as homemakers, and considered to take care of domestic lives. Madonna clearly doesn't fit in the picture. "I'm anal retentive. I'm a workaholic. I have insomnia. And I'm a control freak. That's why I'm not married. Who could stand me?" If Madonna is also a feminist, then she is perfect to being the first lady president! What is America waiting for? Time has come: women must grab the seat of the Ms. President! Let's fight for it!
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