Madonna video disturbs viewer

Girls can wear jeans, cut their hair short, wear shorts and boots, because it\'s OK to be a boy. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly, you\'d love to know what it\'s like, wouldn\'t you. What it feels like for a girl."\n-- excerpt from "What It Feels Like For A Girl"\nThe first thought that comes to mind when the words "Madonna" and "controversy" are spoken in the same sentence is "sex." \nThe one-time material girl has made a name for herself by exploring sexuality in all aspects of her life. Through music videos, her movie "Truth or Dare" and her book, "Sex," Madonna has challenged and passed the boundaries that surround society's most "hush-hush" topic. \nHer videos "Justify My Love" and "Erotica," along with Prodigy\'s "Smack My Bitch Up," released under her label, were all either censored or restricted by MTV because of their sexual content. So when I heard MTV planned to show her new video, "What It Feels Like For A Girl," once, I figured it was going to be similar to past videos. Even after I heard that the video was being restricted for violence rather than sex, I still assumed the worst. When the video finally did air at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, complete with a warning from MTV News anchor Kurt Loder, I was surprised and a little disappointed that the video\'s content did not shock me more.\nBut after multiple viewings (I taped it), the video\'s images cast a hypnotic spell, and I began to understand the underlying messages that made the video seemingly dangerous to run.\nIn the video, Madonna picks up an elderly woman from a retirement home and takes her along on a crime spree, which includes aggressive and violent acts against seemingly innocent men. They appear innocent only because during Madonna\'s attacks they are not doing anything wrong, but they are guilty of being men in a male-dominated society, which is the point. \nGuy Ritchie, Madonna\'s husband and British filmmaker ("Snatch"), directed the video in a subtly explosive manner, using the techno beat to his advantage during car crashes and explosions.\nAlthough he leaves his mark on the video, the focus never shifts from Madonna\'s character, whom she described as a "nihilistic, pissed off chick doing things girls are not allowed to do." \nIn interpreting the video, it is important to understand that many of Madonna\'s most controversial actions deal with her own fantasies, and "What It Feels Like For A Girl" is just that. The title of the song is interesting, because the video does not focus on the feelings of the girl, but rather what she would like to do with her bottled-up aggression.\nAs the video ran its course, I grew anxious, waiting for the moment when Madonna\'s sixth sense for controversy would turn the video into a topic of discussion for politicians and angry parents. When it ended, I was confused about why MTV would only play it once -- it didn't seem overly violent to me.\nAfter watching it a number of times, it dawned on me that the real threat was not the violence, but the motives behind it. The most violent act was either a man being shocked with a tazer or Madonna running people over with her car. The men in the video are portrayed realistically and are never drawn as "evil" or "sexist."\nInstead, Madonna\'s victims are nothing more than men acting like normal men -- playing hockey, getting money at an ATM and smiling at girls at red lights. As she commits each act, the words "Do you know what it feels like to be a girl in this world?" play over and over. The video never directly answers that question, but the words become more and more haunting as they go on. \nBecause her victims are never harming her directly, and because the acts of violence are easily within the limits of modern cable standards, the video\'s danger lies in the way it challenges the male establishment. \nMadonna has always pushed the envelope with the way women are allowed to act in the public eye; this video is the same, except she uses violence instead of sex. "What It Feels Like For A Girl" is an incredible work of film that gets better the more you see it.