So, last Thursday, Madonna performed a concert at Denver’s Pepsi center. What makes it newsworthy in this instance was performing her song “Gang Bang.” The performance involved blood-splatter effects on the screen and much use of prop guns, at which point she chose to MUZZLE-FUCK THE AUDIENCE ON NO LESS THAN 3 OCCASIONS!
Definition time.
Muzzle-fuck, n. 1). To aim a weapon in the direction of another person the gun wielder (presumably) does not intend to shoot, violating the first law of handgun safety.
see also: “flagging”
The few bloggers who have picked this up are going more towards the possible insensitivity of performing this particular work in Denver, which is a stone’s throw from aurora, where a nutcase who I will not dignify by naming shot indiscriminately into a room full of theatergoers at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises this past summer.
What disturbs me more is the incoherent babble of a statement she released once news started hitting over how many locals she pissed off with her antics. I literally can’t make heads or tails of it one way or another. What strikes me is this:
“It’s true there is a lot of violence in the beginning of the show and sometimes the use of fake guns – but they are used as metaphors.
I do not condone violence or the use of guns.
Rather they are symbols of wanting to appear strong and wanting to find
a way to stop feelings that I find hurtful or damaging.”
A metaphor can’t kill from a distance, ma’am. Neither do symbols. And it’s a damn shame you don’t condone the use of guns, because then you might have associated with someone who would have filled you in on the fact that you DON’T AIM A GUN OR ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE ONE INTO THE AUDIENCE!
It honestly wouldn’t have changed the number all that much. 3 tweaks to the choreography, only pointing the muzzle at other performers, I would’ve been cool with that. That’s all it would’ve needed. But either nobody on team Madonna brought it up, or (more likely) nobody wanted to press the point with her and risk their job.
Which leads me to the other thing that chaps me about this: the casual use of firearms as art pieces while having no respect for them as tools.
A lot of Americans who don’t interact with firearms regularly have what I call a Lust-Fear relationship with them. The idea (or the symbol or the metaphor, to quote Madonna’s ramblings) is scary and cool and exciting, but the reality is unfamiliar and terrifying. The whole “ooh, a gun.. OHSHITITSAGUN!” reaction.
Unfamiliarity breeds ignorance which breeds fear. The end result is performers who wonder why there’s a slew of paperwork involved in bringing a firearm into their production while simultaneously advocating the Brady Campaign.
Madonna’s not the first anti-gun performer to use them when it’s convenient for her, (I’d go over the laundry list, but it’s a bit depressing) but she is the first to be so in a way that both illustrates her lack of safety knowledge (or willful disregard of it, hard to tell which) and garnered the attentions of the press for a short while about it.
Definition time.
Muzzle-fuck, n. 1). To aim a weapon in the direction of another person the gun wielder (presumably) does not intend to shoot, violating the first law of handgun safety.
see also: “flagging”
The few bloggers who have picked this up are going more towards the possible insensitivity of performing this particular work in Denver, which is a stone’s throw from aurora, where a nutcase who I will not dignify by naming shot indiscriminately into a room full of theatergoers at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises this past summer.
What disturbs me more is the incoherent babble of a statement she released once news started hitting over how many locals she pissed off with her antics. I literally can’t make heads or tails of it one way or another. What strikes me is this:
“It’s true there is a lot of violence in the beginning of the show and sometimes the use of fake guns – but they are used as metaphors.
I do not condone violence or the use of guns.
Rather they are symbols of wanting to appear strong and wanting to find
a way to stop feelings that I find hurtful or damaging.”
A metaphor can’t kill from a distance, ma’am. Neither do symbols. And it’s a damn shame you don’t condone the use of guns, because then you might have associated with someone who would have filled you in on the fact that you DON’T AIM A GUN OR ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE ONE INTO THE AUDIENCE!
It honestly wouldn’t have changed the number all that much. 3 tweaks to the choreography, only pointing the muzzle at other performers, I would’ve been cool with that. That’s all it would’ve needed. But either nobody on team Madonna brought it up, or (more likely) nobody wanted to press the point with her and risk their job.
Which leads me to the other thing that chaps me about this: the casual use of firearms as art pieces while having no respect for them as tools.
A lot of Americans who don’t interact with firearms regularly have what I call a Lust-Fear relationship with them. The idea (or the symbol or the metaphor, to quote Madonna’s ramblings) is scary and cool and exciting, but the reality is unfamiliar and terrifying. The whole “ooh, a gun.. OHSHITITSAGUN!” reaction.
Unfamiliarity breeds ignorance which breeds fear. The end result is performers who wonder why there’s a slew of paperwork involved in bringing a firearm into their production while simultaneously advocating the Brady Campaign.
Madonna’s not the first anti-gun performer to use them when it’s convenient for her, (I’d go over the laundry list, but it’s a bit depressing) but she is the first to be so in a way that both illustrates her lack of safety knowledge (or willful disregard of it, hard to tell which) and garnered the attentions of the press for a short while about it.
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