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Loading...Madonna Sued by France’s National Front Party
Madonna has pushed hard during her current MDNA tour to cause controversy. The world tour has sparked protest from a number of people. Last month, she successfully flashed her breast to a live audience in Istanbul, sparking numerous comments on her body and performance choices.
While the strip tease she performed in Istanbul did make some viewers uncomfortable, this particular stunt was not so different from many of her performances over the years that have involved sexual innuendo, strip teases and provocative costumes. In some ways, the fact that the 53-year-old singer bared her breast proudly, pushing against critics that deride mature women’s bodies in a youth-worshipping culture, is a feat to be applauded.
This month, Madonna took the idea of controversy and social critique to a whole new level, pushing the buttons of France’s far-right political party, the National Front. During the current MDNA tour, a video appears behind the singer on a large screen as she performs.
A series of images flashes across the screen during the show, including an image of the National Front’s party leader, Marine Le Pen. The next image shows a Hitler-like version of Madonna’s face, including the iconic mustache. Critics feel that Madonna is suggesting that the National Front subscribes to anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The political party announced on Sunday that it plans to sue Madonna over the video, which she has used on more than one occasion during the MDNA tour. The sudden decision to sue over the image comes after Madonna performed in a Paris suburb over the weekend, the BBC reports.
The Associated Press sums up the current debate surrounding the singer’s performance and multimedia display:
Le Pen, who inherited control of the party from her father, Jean-Marie, has tried to shed the National Front’s image as racist and anti-Semitic, especially during her recent failed bid for president. But she has maintained a hard line on immigrants, saying France has too many and criticizing many Muslims, in particular, for insufficiently assimilating into French culture.
Meanwhile, anti-racism group SOS Racisme expressed its support for Madonna on Sunday, commending her for her “resolutely anti-racist and feminist discourse.”
Madonna has also stated this year that she defies the Russian government’s recent legislation that bars LGBT activists from showing any banners or signs that discuss issues or identities within the LGBT community. She plans to do a performance in St. Petersburg this coming August.
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Read more: far right, france, hitler, hollande, immigration, madonna, MDNA tour, politics, show
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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+ add your ownOr maybe it's just that the far right is mad for being compared to a dictator... Which Madonna has a point, the authoritarian, patriarchal movement of the far right political pary does resemble a lot of the same type of creeds as Hitler and his hate toward other races.
Oh, wow... A breast is so offensive! And yet we're okay with porno, as a whole, when the whole industry exploits women and sex in mass? Yet Madonna still claiming her own sexuality is so terribly bad?
C'mon! France has nude beaches. They have no right to talk.
madonna, is like an old prostitute trying to convince her client that she is still as snug and taut as she was in her yesteryears. Belying the fact that she is loose-as-a-goose in character and body! Ignore her please!
Coming to the muslim part in france------- didnt we just recently see that muslim fellow kill jews outside a primary school and then army officers at an ATM! If they dont like the customs of the country that is hosting them.....they should walk out under protest back to sand dunes of where ever they came from. Assimilate or vacate! see in the west you have a choice unlike in the mideast where the saudis have just put out diktat that if anyone caught eating or drinking(non alcoholic) in public during the month of Ramadan will have their visas cancelled and will be deported .....er....after the public lashings!
she's a f****** performance artist. If Tosh can get away with rape jokes, why can't Madonna have an opinion on racism that she shares through her professional medium? Oh, that's right... she's a middle-aged woman. She's female and too old to be sexy. So apparently that means that her opinions are worthless and we should all just talk about how her body doesn't fit our narrow definition of beauty and she shouldn't be flaunting it around onstage trying to get publicity. Also... I thought public figures such as popstars were supposed to do things for publicity anyway. It's kinda part of the being famous game.
Madonna is just out for the money and cheap publicity to the point that she'll turn over her own body for it. She's a disgrace. France should have ignored her instead of feeding into her desire for negative attention.
All Madonna wants is make publicity one way or another, and she always succeeds.
It is all just shock value and has nothing to do with real political sense. If you want to oppose the extreme right you need more than a picture with a Hitler moustache and a swastika.
Why should we care? There are more important issues than self-centered celebrities activities.
Well what can one say about Madonna. She has always pushed the envelope & caused controversy. She has reinvented herself so many times. But like Cher- it shows that women beyond the age of 30 do have a following. That is something we need to see more of. Women should be celebrated regardless of their age & that is something in our culture these days that is not done. The media is much to blame for this. Everything is airbrushed. Loreal in my view is the worst. Diane Keaton & Andy McDowell hawk wrinkle cream & yet where are they. They use an older woman, which is great but then airbrush every blemish or wrinkle away. Too sad. Sorry off topic.
[Quote Marianne C.]: Hmmmm... France files suit against Madonna. That must have taken real courage on their part. [Quote]
Not France, just Marine Le Pen herself.
WELL AT LEAST HER LAWERS WILL MAKE A BUNCH OF MONEY....OUT OF HER....SO... GOOD!
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